Tehran: The family of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman who died while in the custody of the morality police said that they had received death threats and warnings not to participate in the demonstrations.
Erfan Mortezai, Mahsa’s cousin and a member of the Kurdistan Communist Party told a BBC correspondent when they met across the border in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, “Our family has been under immense pressure from the Islamic Republic’s officials, so we don’t talk to human rights organizations or channels outside of Iran and inform anyone from the outside world about her passing.”
“They are under Islamic Republic torture,” he said, adding, “The regime’s officials have threatened us through Instagram with fake accounts, and told the family members in Iran that if they get involved in the protests, they might be killed.”
Erfan himself had received telephone calls and messages from unidentified numbers, saying that if they see him in the city, they will kidnap and kill him.
The death of Mahsa Amini, became a symbol of the repression by the Iranian authorities after she was arrested by the morality police, on the pretext of not covering her hair properly.
Protests erupted in Iran after Mahsa Amini fell into a coma and died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for wearing the hijab in an ‘improper manner’ meaning she had not fully covered her hair.
Amini fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre before she was pronounced dead on Friday, September 16.
This angered the Iranians, who went out and are still taking to the streets in large numbers, to demand punishment for the perpetrators and the dissolution of the morality police, including those who demanded the overthrow of the regime as a whole.
Women played a prominent role in those protests, and female protesters brandished and burned their headscarves. They also participated in cutting their hair inside Iran and all countries of the world.
The demonstrations resulted in dozens of deaths, especially as security forces used force in an attempt to suppress the widespread protests taking place in the country.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Forensic Medical Authority claimed on Friday, that “the death of Mahsa Amini was not due to blows to the head, vital organs and body extremities.” Her death was related to “surgery for a brain tumour at the age of eight”.
