• Iranian woman killed after her unscarved hair video went viral, says reports

    International
    Iranian woman killed after her unscarved hair video went viral, says reports

    A video of a burial has gone viral, showing people sobbing over a photograph of her lying in a newly dug grave.


    Digital Desk: Hadis Najafi, a young Iranian woman whose video of her pulling her unscarved hair back and bravely marching into the middle of a protest went viral, was shot dead in the country, according to sources.


    A video of her burial has gone viral, showing people sobbing over a photograph of her on a newly dug grave.


    She was wounded in the midsection, neck, heart, and hand, according to reports.


    For more than a week, Iran has been shaken by deadly unrest. It erupted after Mahsa Amini, 22, collapsed in police custody after being arrested for "improper" hijab, a covering that women are required by law to wear.


    This 20-year-old girl was slain by six bullets as she prepared to join the protest over the death of #MahsaAmini. #HadisNajafi, 20, was shot in the chest, face, and neck by security agents from the Islamic Republic. Masih Alinejad tweeted, "Be our voice."


    Hundreds of people also gathered in London this weekend in protest of Mahsa Amini's killing. Amini passed away on September 16.


    According to medical data, the young woman from the Iranian province of Kurdistan was put into a coma after receiving multiple hard strikes to the head. According to Euronews, Iran's authorities allege she "suffered a sudden heart attack."


    Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women in Iran are required by law to wear the hijab. The policy is mostly unpopular, with most Iranian women wearing their headscarves loosely around their ears or allowing it to fall to the neck.


    When the law was imposed in 1981, it sparked massive protests, which have continued periodically ever since, according to reports.


    "The dictatorship aims to show that they did not use violence (against Amini) by employing violence against protestors," said lawyer Mohammad Hoshr. "It doesn't make sense."


    "They (Iranian officials) are coming on television and saying that nobody even touched this woman in detention, while they are shooting people on the streets," he continued.


    Since last week's protests in Iran, 35 people have been killed. The vast majority of these killings have resulted from security forces forcibly suppressing demonstrations, in some cases using live weapons. Security police have also detained hundreds of people, according to Euronews.


    The UK government, along with other Western countries, has strongly condemned the "death" of Mahsa Amini, yet there has been criticism that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was not publicly pushed on the matter during a recent UN summit in New York.


    Many Iranian regulations, such as the mandatory headscarf, are profoundly unpopular among vast segments of the Iranian populace. Economic difficulties, particularly inflation and a massively devalued currency fueled by sanctions, have only exacerbated their dissatisfaction.


    However, according to reports, shouts against Iran's supreme leader and the Islamic Republic have been a common element of this week's protests, with many Iranians yelling "down with the dictator."