Iran security forces cover up shooting of young women on bikes

• Author: BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Persian language media outside of Iran reported on Wednesday about the alleged Iranian regime misconduct.

The US government outlet Radio Farda reported that "According to the mother of one of the shot girls, the officers first asked them not to leak the news so that they could find out which person or group did that. In less than 48 hours, the accused is identified and arrested; a 35-year-old man, according to the victims. However, according to the family of one of the victims, the security officials advised not to sue him, and at the hospital when they settled the bill, they said that if you want the hospital to pay the cost of the hospital, you have to consent."'

Al Arabiya Farsi wrote the alleged suspect "was arrested with the help of security forces in 48 hours, but was released on bail in less than a month. Shargh newspaper wrote in a report that a man shot several women and at least one man in Isfahan on Thursday, August 19. Three young women were shot in the street and all three said they were shot in the back with a rifle, apparently a hunting shotgun, so that they had to go to medical facilities. "

Al Arabiya added that "While attending the hospital, one of the families found out that at least five people had been hospitalized for this reason. The report states that the bad behavior of the shooter's family, on the one hand, and the history of such violence in Isfahan, on the other, led several families to seek legal attention to the incident" in the media.

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany to escape persecution, said that the "Basij attack civilians on the streets, especially women, if according to them the women don't have a proper hijab. No one in Iran can do something like that and be released on bail except when they are allowed by Khamenei to fire at will or Basij or somehow related to one of the Islamic Republic's organs. When there is a private complainant, it is impossible to be released without their consent. Only someone related to the regime can commit a crime like this and then force the complainants to consent."

The Basij is a para-military force of young and fanatically pro-Iranian regime men.

Vojoudi added that "In a speech on June 7, 2017 [Ali] Khamenei [The Supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran] gave full power to his supporters to act 'independently like they are in a battlefield, fire at will."'

She noted that Khamenei said, "Sometimes key think tanks and cultural and political...