Safa Aeli, Amini’s uncle, was apprehended in Saqqez and taken to an unknown location, reported the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Multiple vehicles of security personnel carried out the arrest of 30-year-old Aeli, according to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Amini died on September 16, 2022 while in the custody of Tehran’s morality police after she was arrested for allegedly violating the mandatory dress code by improperly wearing her hijab. Thousands of people protested for weeks after her death, chanting “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman Life Freedom). As authorities cracked down, protest demands for greater freedoms grew to calls for the overthrow of the regime. Women took a lead role in the protests, removing their headscarves in defiance of the hijab law. Thousands of people were arrested and hundreds killed.
Ahead of the anniversary of Amini’s death, Iranian authorities are trying to suppress any renewed protests or commemorations. At least 72 family members of people killed in the protests have been arrested in the last five months and “there has been a notable increase in the pressure exerted by security institutions” on the families, according to Hengaw.
“The families have been threatened not to publish any calls to organise events to mark the anniversary,” reported KHRN.
The father and sister of Mohammad Hassanzadeh, who was killed in the protests, were arrested, Hengaw reported on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch last month condemned Iran’s crackdown and “arbitrary arrests” ahead of the protest anniversary.
Iran has accused foreign countries of supporting the unrest and “riots.”
The Iranian parliament has introduced a stricter hijab law. The “Bill to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” proposes fines or imprisonment for women who refuse to wear the hijab. Insulting the hijab would also be banned.
United Nations human rights experts condemned the proposed law as “a form of gender apartheid.”
“By using terms such as “nudity, lack of chastity, lack of hijab, bad dressing and acts against public decency leading to disturbance of peace”, the draft law seeks to authorise public institutions to deny essential services and opportunities to persons who fail to comply with compulsory veiling,” the UN experts said.
