In September 2022, Jina Amini, a young Kurdish woman, visited Tehran with her brother. She was stopped and arrested by Iran’s “morality” police (gasht-e ershad), who routinely arbitrarily detain women who do not comply with the country’s abusive and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws.  

Eyewitnesses said that police pushed her into a van and beat her, taking her to Vozara detention centre in Tehran. Jina Amini and her brother were told that she was being transferred to Vozara for an “educational” class aimed at “reforming” the behaviour of women and girls who violate the country’s rigid Islamic dress code. Her brother was also beaten when he protested. 

Hours after her arrest, credible reports arose that the “morality” police had subjected her to torture and other ill-treatment inside the police van, including through beatings to her head. She fell into a coma, and was transferred in an ambulance to Kasra hospital in Tehran.  

She died in custody three days later in hospital, on 16 September 2022.  

She was just 22. 

Amini’s death in custody sparked the nationwide "Jin Jihan Azadi" (Woman Life Freedom) uprising against decades of inequality and widespread repression. Iranian authorities responded with unlawful force, including by firing live ammunition, metal pellets and tear gas into crowds of largely peaceful protesters.  

Security forces unlawfully killed hundreds of protesters, including children, while hundreds of others were blinded due to the firing of metal pellets, with thousands more sustaining other serious injuries by unlawful use of force. Fearing arrest and other reprisals, many did not seek medical care. Tens of thousands of people were also arbitrarily arrested.  

During the uprising and its aftermath, intelligence and security forces also committed widespread torture and other ill-treatment. Many protesters, including children, were tortured.