by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
GENEVA (Reuters) – A United Nations-mandated fact-finding mission concluded on Monday that the death of Mahsa Amini, who died while in detention by Iranian morality police, was the result of violence, while Iranian women still suffer systematic discrimination.
The September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, while detained for allegedly violating Iran’s dress code, sparked months of protests against the regime.
“Our investigation established that her death was unjustified and caused by physical violence while she was in the custody of the authorities,” Sara Hossain, president of the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran, told the Human Rights Council of man in Geneva.
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The fact-finding mission found that the protests that followed were marked by extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and sexual violence.
“These acts were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against women and girls, as well as others expressing support for human rights,” said Sara Hossain.
“Some of these serious human rights violations have therefore been characterized as crimes against humanity.”
In response, Kazem Gharib Abadi, secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, accused the fact-finding mission of a “blatant lack of independence and impartiality.”
In separate comments to the Human Rights Council, Javaid Rehman, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, said activist Narges Mohammadi, currently in detention, was suffering from serious problems health endangering his life.
“She was denied access to medical care because she did not wear the obligatory hijab,” Sara Hossain said of Narges Mohammadi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Cécile Mantovani; French version by Alban Kacher, edited by Kate Entringer)
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