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Iranian woman left unable to walk after police shooting over hijab law violation
Iranian women not wearing their mandatory headscarf, or hijab, walk in Tehran, Iran, August 5, 2023

IRANIAN police opened fire on a woman who attempted to drive away in fear after they tried to seize her car over a hijab law violation, activists have said.

Police had been ordered to impound 31-year-old Arezou Badri’s vehicle because she had been spotted with her hair visible while driving home, breaking Iran’s headscarf law.

The latest casualty of the country’s hijab rules, Ms Badri has been left unable to walk after ther incident.

In 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody in a headscarf row, sparking nationwide protests.

Last week, surveillance footage showed a 14-year-old girl manhandled by the morality police in the capital Tehran.

Her mother Maryam Abbasi said her daughter’s head was rammed into an electrical box, a female officer pulling her hair and another putting their foot on her neck.

Of Ms Badri’s case, Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran, said: “They have elevated it to the most serious crime, where the police are allowed basically to shoot to kill.

“That’s really a war on women.”

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