Zahra Bani Yaghoub

Zahra Bani Yaghoub (Persian: زهرا بنی‌یعقوب) (also mentioned in the media as Zahra Bani Ameri[1] 16 October 1980[2] – 13 October 2007) was an Iranian medical doctor. She died in a prison in Hamedan after she was arrested by the moral police (Basij). The incident gained attention in the press due to the possible police involvement in her death.[3]

Career

Born in Tehran, Bani Yaghoub studied at Tehran University medical school and worked as a volunteer physician in Hamedan Province. Zahra Bani Yaghoub was a distinguished young medical doctor and had several recognitions including her top rank in nationwide university entrance examination.[4] The police told her father: "Iran does not need such medical doctors."[4] Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi has taken the case and is currently the official lawyer of Zahra Bani Yaghoub's family.[5]

Death

In 2007, Iranian police launched a "Public security plan and Moralization Campaign". Many Iranian citizens including many women were arrested and questioned for "un-Islamic" behavior.

In 2007 Zahra Bani Yaghoub was sitting on a park bench with her fiancé when Iranian police arrested the couple. This was considered by the Iranian judiciary to be a breach of modesty laws because the two were not yet married.[6] They were taken to jail and held in separate cells, and Yaghoub died under custody the following day.[7] Iranian officials claimed that the victim committed suicide by hanging herself.[8] However the lawyer did not accept the claims and requested investigations.[9]

See also

  • History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran

Notes

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