Iranian woman ‘shot by police in her car for driving without a headscarf’
An Iranian mother of two has reportedly been shot dead in her car by police for violating the country’s draconian hijab rules.
Arezoo Badri, 31, was left paralysed from the waist down after being shot while driving home in the northern town of Noor on July 22.
Iranian police had attempted to arrest Ms Badri and confiscate her car, BBC has reported.
The police chief told Iran’s state news agency that the driver did not stop, prompting officers to fire. However, they did not name Ms Badri as the woman involved.
The incident comes after Iranian authorities announced stricter dress codes in the country.
Last year, police said they would use surveillance cameras to identify female drivers or passengers who did not cover their hair and impound their cars.
Arezoo Badri, 31, was left paralysed from the waist down after she was shot while driving home in the northern town of Noor on July 22.
According to the police, Ms Badri failed to stop her car when the officers asked her to do so.
Ms Badri was first treated at a hospital in Sari, the provincial capital, where she underwent lung surgery, but a week later she was transferred to Tehran
Women in Iran have been required by law to wear a headscarf since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. If they break the rules, they risk fines or even imprisonment.
While it is unclear whether Ms Badri was wearing a headscarf when she was shot, there was a seizure notice on her vehicle, indicating continued violations of dress codes.
A source told the BBC that Ms Badri was deliberately attacked by the police officer from the driver’s side after the first bullet hit the car’s tyre.
The bullet hit the 31-year-old woman’s lung and damaged her spinal cord. It is still unclear whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not.
Ms Badri was first treated at a hospital in Sari, the provincial capital, where she underwent lung surgery, but was transferred to Tehran a week later.
Iran’s stricter new dress code laws in cars follow ongoing public outrage following the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini in 2022.
Ms Amini died in custody after being detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing her headscarf ‘correctly’.
The death of Masha Amini, 22, in police custody in 2022 sparked global protests
Amini died in custody after flouting Iran’s ultra-conservative dress code, sparking outrage across the country and beyond
Women cut their hair in protest against the Iranian government after the death of Amini
Her death set off weeks of protests across the country in Iran after reports she had been beaten to death by police.
Iranian authorities deny these claims, saying she did not die from severe beatings but from multi-organ failure caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.
In addition, 17-year-old Armita Geravand died in hospital last October after an alleged scuffle with the vice squad at a metro station.
The teenager was in a coma for ten days, but eventually died at Fajr Hospital in Tehran.
Human rights activists claim she was attacked because she did not cover her hair. The Iranian government denies this story.