Foreign

Iranian Woman Dies Following Morality Police Arrest

By Web News 646

A 22-year-old Iranian woman has died days after being arrested by morality police for allegedly not complying with strict rules on head coverings.

Eyewitnesses said Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran on Tuesday.

Police have denied the allegations, saying Ms Amini had “suddenly suffered a heart problem”.

It is the latest in a series of reports of brutality against women by authorities in Iran in recent weeks.

Ms Amini’s family said that she was a healthy young woman with no medical conditions that would explain a sudden heart problem.

However, they were informed she had been taken to hospital a few hours after her arrest and the family said she had been in a coma before she died on Friday.

Tehran police said Ms Amini had been arrested for “justification and education” about the hijab, the headscarf which is mandatory for all women to wear.

Her death comes in the wake of growing reports of repressive acts against women, including those judged not to be complying with the Islamic dress code being barred from entering government offices and banks.

Many Iranians, including pro-government individuals, are expressing their outrage on social media platforms regarding the very existence of the morality police, also known as Guidance Patrols, and are using hashtags that translate as Murder Patrols.

Videos have emerged on social media appearing to show officers detaining women, dragging them on the ground, and forcefully whisking them away.

Many Iranians blame the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, directly. An old speech of his is being re-shared on social media in which he justifies the role of the morality police and insists that under Islamic rule, women must be forced to observe the Islamic dress code.

The latest episode will only deepen the divide between a large part of Iran’s young and vibrant society and its radical rulers, a rift that seems ever harder to mend.

BBC/Taiwo  Akinola

Crime

Man in Police Net Over Rape

By Web News 2180

Oyo state police command has arrested a twenty-seven-year-old man, Ojo Adeagbo, for allegedly raping a thirteen-year-old girl in the Olodo area of Ibadan.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso confirmed the incident to our Correspondent.

He said the investigation had begun into the matter.

The suspect was said to be a friend of the senior brother of the rape victim and had been staying with the victim’s family for over two years.

Narrating her ordeal, the teenager, said Ojo had invited her to get something for him but on rising to the call, gagged her mouth and pounced on her.

She said, Ojo since the first ençounter, eventually turned her into a sex slave and had been sexually assaulting her for the past seven months.

The teenager also revealed that the man was in the habit of wiping her private part with a new handkerchief any time she had carnal knowledge of her.

On why she did not report the case early, the teenager said Ojo had allegedly warned her not to tell her parents else he would kill all her family members.

Radio Nigeria reliably gathered that the medical examination carried out on the teenager at the Oyo State Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan confirmed that the hymen had been broken.

It was also gathered that Ojo Adeagbo had also attempted to have sexual intercourse with the eleven-year-old sister of the victim after watching a pornographic film with her.

Abisola Oluremi