Mahsa Amini was visiting relatives in Tehran with her family before entering university when she crossed paths with the vice police to be detained and then died after being “hit on the head,” as a relative living in Iraq said.
Mahsa’s cousin, Irfan Saleh Murtazai, who has been living in Iraqi Kurdistan for a year now, where he joined the anti-regime armed Kurdish organization Komla, says he spoke to Mahsa’s mother as soon as he learned of her death, and she in turn told him what happened on 13 September.
Murtazai says that “Zina’s death opened the gates of popular anger and demonstrations to the regime,” using the Kurdish name of a 22-year-old woman who died in mid-September to refer to the protests that erupted thereafter.
So far, dozens of people have been killed in the government’s crackdown on protests. More than 1,200 people were arrested, according to authorities.
The country, under US sanctions and facing a severe economic crisis, has seen several waves of demonstrations in recent years.
