Following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, a string of protests have been taking place across Iran against the government’s strict mandate on hijabs (headscarves).
Amid the turmoil, 23-year-old TikToker Hadis Najafi lost her life when she joined the demonstrations in Karaj last week.
Sources report that Amini is said to have died of a heart attack despite having no prior history of heart-related ailments. Her uncle, along with other eyewitnesses claim that she had been mercilessly beaten inside a police van for not wearing her hijab correctly. Many women have been taking to the streets to protest against the treatment meted out to Amini.
Among them was Najafi, who had even sent out a video to her friends where she spoke of things “changing” for the better in the future. However, less than an hour after the video was sent, the 23-year-old was shot dead.
According to Unilad, one of Najafi’s friends revealed that the TikToker had been “shot many times by the Iranian police” because of her “hijab and defending the hijab and women’s right to freedom in veiling.”
Speaking to Sky News, the friend who chose to remain anonymous for security concerns also stated that the authorities did not allow Najafi’s family to see her. “Several nurses […] told her family to run, because Hadis had been at the protests so they might also be targeted if the police came,” she claimed.
In fact, family members of the victim were not permitted to see Hadis Najafi properly. Her “crying mother and sister” were only allowed to see her face to make sure they were “burying the right person”. The bereaved mother said, “My daughter was killed because of the hijab, because of Mahsa Amini. She went to protest and was killed, hit by bullets, in her heart, in her stomach, in her neck. When we looked at her body, her face and body were bruised.”
She further spoke of the treatment meted out to them by the authorities, who “shouted slurs” at them and “refused to tell [them] where to find her body.”
Moreover, Najafi’s friend also alleged that authorities were keen to cover up the cause of the TikToker’s death, who wasn’t even allowed a “real” funeral after an arrangement with the deceased’s family.
“After she was buried, her sisters Afsoon and Shirin decided to publish her photos and tell people she was shot,” said the friend, adding, “The authorities didn’t want people to say she was shot, they were told to say she’d died in a car crash, or a brain injury, that she’d died a natural death.”
Nevertheless, sources report that the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has assured that an investigation will be carried out to probe Najafi’s death.