Mehsa’s mother told a reporter, “gone…she's gone” as she cried out loud. On September 14, 22 year old Mehsa Amini was taken into custody by the "morality police" in the Iranian capital of Tehran. She entered a coma that day, was taken to the hospital, and passed away on September 16. Iranian news outlets reported that Mehsa was with her brother in Tehran when she was arrested for “improper” hijab.They informed her brother that she was being brought to the headquarters of the morality police for an "educational and orientation class." As he waited outside the headquarters for two hours he realized she was taken to the hospital and heard screams of other women saying, “they killed someone in there.”However, Iran's police center claims that Mehsa was transferred to the hospital because she suffered a cardiac seizure while  in custody.

The abuse regarding women's rights in Iran is not something new. Police brutality against women in Iran who refuse to wear the mandatory headscarf has been universally criticized after several recent cases. A lady had  been harassed and filmed then arrested in July on charges of resisting arrest. She was allegedly abused while in jail, transported to the hospital for internal bleeding, and then forced to apologize on state television. Outrageous depravity is on full display when a woman is killed after being arrested for the way she was dressed.

Despite the slight progress on women's rights worldwide, there is still much to be done in Iran to achieve gender equality. In 2018, 17.6% of women aged 15 to 49 reported being subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. Many of these abuses in Iran go unreported and according to an Iranian saying: "Women should sacrifice themselves and tolerate" which is how many women deal with domestic abuse. As of December 2020, just 43.4% of gender-related SDG indicators were accessible, including gaps in crucial areas such as the gender pay gap. Closing gender data gaps is crucial for Iran's SDG gender objectives.

By: Baniz Wasman