Protests have erupted in Iran after a young woman died following her arrest by police. Iranian police reportedly issued a statement Monday calling the woman's death an "unfortunate incident" and denied accusations that she was mistreated by authorities, which have provoked widespread demonstrations against the Islamic regime.
The 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, fell into a coma and died after she was arrested by morality police last week, which led to protests in Tehran and the Kurdistan province from which she came, Reuters reported.
Amini was reportedly detained for allegedly violating the country's strict hijab rules, which require women to wear a hair covering and loose clothing over their arms and legs. Witnesses accused police officers of beating her, but Police Brig-Gen Hossein Rahimi denied the allegations, according to the BBC.
Police claimed she suffered "sudden heart failure" while awaiting transport to a facility to be "educated." They released video showing a woman they identified as Amini talking with a female official, who grabs her clothing. The woman then raised her hands to her head and collapsed, the BBC reported.
"This incident was unfortunate for us and we wish to never witness such incidents," Rahimi told the Fars news agency.
However, the woman's father on Sunday reportedly told a pro-reform website Emtedad News that his daughter had no health problems and that she suffered bruises on her legs. He blamed the police for her death.
The incident has led to widespread public outcry in Iran and on social media. The Persian hashtag #MahsaAmini has reached nearly 2 million Twitter mentions since last week, along with anti-government slogans, Reuters reported. Iranian women have posted videos on social media showing them cutting their hair and burning their hijabs to protest the regime.
"From the age of 7 if we don’t cover our hair we won’t be able to go to school or get a job. We are fed up with this gender apartheid regime," Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad tweeted on Sunday.
\u201cIranian women show their anger by cutting their hair and burning their hijab to protest against the killing of #Mahsa_Amini by hijab police.\nFrom the age of 7 if we don\u2019t cover our hair we won\u2019t be able to go to school or get a job. We are fed up with this gender apartheid regime\u201d— Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f (@Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f) 1663504953
\u201cThis video brought tears to my eyes.\nWomen & men burning compulsory hijab in the streets of Tehran where #MahsaAmini was beaten up to death by hijab police.\nThe woman who took the video says; our dream comes true Finally we are burning the symbol of our oppression in the street.\u201d— Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f (@Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f) 1663606507
Protests reportedly began on Saturday during Amini's funeral in Saqqez, the capital city of the Kurdistan Province. Social media videos show women chanting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and removing their hijabs.
The Iranian government has reportedly used violence against the protesters. Alinejad shared in another tweet that Iranian Security Forces allegedly opened fire on peaceful protesters in Saqqez. She posted video that shows a man lying on the ground and bleeding before he's carried away to what appears to be a medical facility.
*Graphic Content Warning*
\u201cThis is the real Iran, Security forces in Iran\u2019s Saqqez opened fire at peaceful protesters following the burial of #Mahsa_Amini.\nSeveral protesters have been injured.\nFirst Hijab police killed a 22 Yr old girl and now using guns and tear gas against grieving people.\n#\u0645\u0647\u0633\u0627_\u0627\u0645\u06cc\u0646\u06cc\u201d— Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f (@Masih Alinejad \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f) 1663418327
Other videos from Iranian journalists show what is reported to be police in Tehran beating protesters.
\u201cIran security forces beating protesters in central Tehran (Keshvarz Boulevard) amid protests over death of #Mahsa_Amini (Jina), 19Sep. Protests are near detention centre where she was held before slipping into coma, dying. (Source @masoudkazemi81) #\u0645\u0647\u0633\u0627_\u0627\u0645\u06cc\u0646\u06cc\u201d— Khosro Kalbasi (@Khosro Kalbasi) 1663595790
And protesters have been filmed throwing rocks at a police water cannon truck, as well as attempting to flip over police vehicles.
\u201c#Iran\nProtesters trying to flip a police car in #Tehran's Vali Asr square earlier today while throwing stones at others. At least 4 police vehicles, including the water cannon truck, are seen in the video.\n#Mahsa_Amini\u201d— MAYSAM BIZ\u00c6R \u0645\u06cc\u062b\u0645 \u0628\u06cc\u200c\u0632\u0631 (@MAYSAM BIZ\u00c6R \u0645\u06cc\u062b\u0645 \u0628\u06cc\u200c\u0632\u0631) 1663599696
\u201cProtestors throw rocks at a water cannon truck in Iran. \n\nYou can hear a woman scream \u201cbi sharaf,\u201d loudly over and over again.\n\nBi sharaf is a top-level insult in Persian. It means someone without any dignity, honor, and shame. \nhttps://t.co/HjIsSUsl8K\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1663602999
Crowds in the Kurdistan province took to the streets over the weekend chanting, "death to the dictator," according to BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh.
\u201cIn Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, an even larger crowd than last night has taken to the streets over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by Iran's morality police.\n\nProtesters in Ferdowsi Street chant "death to the dictator" .\nhttps://t.co/gtgVj4pKTz\u201d— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan Sardarizadeh) 1663336872
Amini's death could escalate tensions between the Iranian regime and the country's Kurdish minority, which numbers eight to 10 million people. According to Reuters, Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers have used violence to suppress unrest in Kurdish areas of the country for decades.
"If history is any guide, Iranian government security forces will soon begin mowing down protestors in the street," Iranian-American journalist Yashar Ali observed on Monday.
\u201cIf history is any guide, Iranian government security forces will soon begin mowing down protestors in the street.\n\nThe best thing you can do is to keep this story alive.\n\nIranians may be silenced by their government, but that does not mean the world has to be silent.\n\n#MahsaAmini\u201d— Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18) 1663606821
A man with a loaded AK-47 in his vehicle was arrested after the FBI says he "behaved suspiciously" outside the New York City home of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist internationally known for her criticism of the Iranian government.
According to reports, Khalid Mehdiyev of Yonkers was recently arrested after he was supposedly seen peering into the windows of Alinejad's Brooklyn home and attempting to open the door. Mehdiyev's gray Subaru SUV with Illinois plates was likewise seen parked for hours in front of her home over the course of two days last week. Mehdiyev had also been issued a parking ticket in the area on July 23.
Mehdiyev was soon afterwards arrested after he failed to stop at a stop sign. He was also supposedly driving with a suspended license. When members of NYPD searched his vehicle, they found a suitcase containing a Norinco AK-47-style rifle with a magazine and a round in the chamber. He also had $1,100 in cash and license plates from other states besides Illinois.
Authorities said that, when questioned, Mehdiyev initially denied knowing that there was a gun in the suitcase and that he had insisted that he was in the area looking for a room to rent. He then supposedly changed his story, admitted that he owned the gun, said he was in the area "looking for someone," and then asked to speak to a lawyer.
Alinejad, 45, was not specifically named in the criminal complaint filed in federal court. However, she tweeted out a video taken from a CCTV camera demonstrating that Mehdiyev had been on her front porch.
"These are the scary scenes capturing a man who tried to enter my house in New York with a loaded gun to kill me," Alinejad tweeted along with the video. "Last year the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me. My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror."
Alinejad is referring to allegations made last year by the U.S. Justice Department that the Iranian regime had orchestrated an attempt to kidnap Alinejad and transport her back to Iran. Iranian officials have supposedly targeted Alinejad, who has dual Iranian and American citizenship, because she criticizes many Iranian policies, especially regarding women wearing the hijab.
"While the international media is paying attention to my assassination plot in the US, let’s remember these women who have been forced to give false confessions against themselves on Iranian state TV," Alinejad tweeted on Sunday. "These acts of terror won’t stop our fight against forced hijab."
Mehdiyev has been charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number and ordered to be detained without bond.
A Muslim mother wants a teacher to "pay" for allegedly pulling a hijab from her second-grade daughter's head last week — and the New Jersey branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations wants the teacher fired, WABC-TV reported.
But the attorney for the teacher is telling a very different story about what happened at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, the station said.
The lawyer for the family of student Sumayyah Wyatt told WABC that after the grade schooler wore her hijab to class on Wednesday, her teacher told her to remove it — but when the girl resisted, the teacher yanked it off in front of the class.
"Ultimately, the teacher succeeds in pulling the hijab off her head, followed by a bizarre statement which is, 'Your hair is beautiful,'" the attorney said, according to the station. "It is incredibly disturbing. It is very, very, symbolic of disregard of her religion and certainly something that has affected my clients overall."
Cassandra Wyatt, the mother of Sumayyah, told WABC that following the alleged incident her daughter no longer wants to wear her hijab — which she had been doing every day — and now the teacher has to "pay."
"She had to know that that was my baby's hijab, and what she did was wrong," Wyatt noted to the station. "She has to pay for that."
Wyatt added to WABC that she'd "love for her to apologize to my daughter, and then my daughter would feel better."
"We call for the immediate firing of the teacher," Executive Director Selaedin Maksut told WABC. "Anything less is an insult to the students and parents of Maplewood. Forcefully stripping off the religious headscarf of a Muslim girl is not only exceptionally disrespectful behavior but also a humiliating and traumatic experience. Muslim students already deal with bullying from peers; it's unthinkable that a teacher would add to their distress. Islamophobia in our public schools must be addressed in New Jersey and nationwide. Classrooms are a place for students to feel safe and welcome, not fear practicing their faith."
Attorney Samantha Harris, who represents the teacher in question, issued a statement to WABC response to the allegations:
This is not a story about a teacher who forcibly removed a student's hijab. This is a story about social media, misinformation, and what happens when people publicize rumors without any knowledge of or regard for the truth. [The teacher] did not, as has been alleged, forcibly remove a student's hijab or tell a student that she should not have to wear a hijab. In accordance with school policy, [the teacher] directed a student in her class to pull down the hood on what appeared to be a hooded sweatshirt because it was blocking her eyes — and immediately rescinded that request when she realized that the student was wearing the hood in place of, rather than on top of, her usual hijab. The misinformation shared on social media has caused tremendous harm to [the teacher] — a teacher who, after more than 30 years of devoting her heart and soul to children of all backgrounds, has now had to ask for police protection due to the threats she is receiving following the dissemination of false information on social media.
The station said it wasn't identifying the teacher because the school district has not confirmed the teacher's identity.
The South Orange Maplewood School District is investigating the incident, the station said.
"The district takes matters of discrimination extremely seriously," officials added in a statement to WABC. "We remain committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our schools, including providing anti-bias and anti-racism training for all educators in the district on a regular basis."
The story came to light after Olympic medal-winning fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad — who's from Maplewood and is known to compete with her hijab on — wrote about the incident on Facebook, the station said.
"This is abuse," she wrote, according to WABC. "Schools should be a haven for all of our kids to feel safe, welcome, and protected — no matter their faith."
www.theblaze.com
freebeacon.com