Iran has faced international criticism over the death of a woman held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests across the country, including clashes with security forces in the capital and unrest that claimed at least three lives.
The UN human rights office called for an investigation, the US – which is trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – called on the Islamic Republic to end its “systemic persecution” of women, and Italy also condemned Mahsa Amini’s death.
Iran dismissed the criticism as politically motivated. Separately, an Iranian official said three people had been killed by unnamed armed groups in the Kurdish region of the country where the protests began, the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the unrest.
The UN body said Iran’s morality police have expanded patrols in recent months, targeting women for not properly wearing the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab. It said verified videos show women being slapped in the face, struck with batons and thrown into police vans for wearing the hijab too loosely.
A similar patrol detained 22-year-old Ms Amini last Tuesday, taking her to a police station where she collapsed. She died three days later.
Iranian police have denied mistreating her and say she died of a heart attack. Authorities say they are investigating.
“Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent, competent authority,” said Nada Al-Nashif, the acting UN high commissioner for human rights.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Ms Amini “should be alive today”.
“Instead, the United States and the Iranian people mourn her. We call on the Iranian government to end its systemic persecution of women and to allow peaceful protest,” he tweeted.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry called for “the perpetrators of this cowardly act” to be held to account, saying: “Violence against innocent people, especially women and girls, can never be tolerated.”
Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian rejected the criticism, accusing the US of “shedding crocodile tears”.
“An investigation was ordered into tragic death of Mahsa, who, as President said, was just like our own daughters,” he tweeted. “To Iran, human rights are of inherent value — unlike those who see it a tool against adversaries.”
Iranian police released closed-circuit video footage last week purportedly showing the moment Ms Amini collapsed, but her family says she had no history of heart trouble.
Her father Amjad Amini told an Iranian news website that witnesses saw her being shoved into a police car.
“I asked for access to (videos) from cameras inside the car as well as courtyard of the police station, but they gave no answer,” he said.
He also accused police of not transferring her to the hospital promptly enough, saying she could have been resuscitated.
He said that when he arrived at the hospital he was not allowed to view the body, but managed to get a glimpse of bruising on her foot.
Authorities then pressured him to bury her at night, apparently to reduce the likelihood of protests, but said the family convinced them to let them bury her at 8am instead.
Ms Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried on Saturday in her home city of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Several protesters were arrested.
The governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, Esmail Zarei Kousha, told the semi-official Fars news agency that three people had been killed by unnamed armed groups, linking the violence to the unrest.
He did not identify the victims, but said one was killed in the town of Divandarreh by a weapon not used by Iranian security forces. He said the second body was found in a car near Saqez and the third killing was “completely” suspicious.
The protests spread to Tehran and other cities on Monday. A news website affiliated with state TV said 22 people were arrested at a protest in the northern city of Rasht, the first official confirmation of arrests related to the protests.
State TV showed footage of protests on Monday, including images of two police cars with their windows smashed. It said the protesters torched two motorbikes as well, and that they burned Iranian flags in Kurdish areas and Tehran.
