The mother of an Iranian teenager has accused the authorities of murdering her daughter during the protests taking place in the country. Nasrin Shahkarami, mother of the 16-year-old Nika, told Radio Farda that her daughter died after joining the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and later, she was forced by the police to say that it was a suicide and Nika jumped from the roof of a building.
Iran is currently experiencing massive protests over the death of Amini – a 22-year-old who was found dead after being detained by the morality police for breaking the hijab laws. The death of Nika has also become symbolic of the protests as the authorities continue to crack down on dissent.
As per official data, around 1200 people have been arrested in the protests till now and more than 100 people have lost their lives including Nika who was found dead on September 20.
Nasrin said that the authorities took her body away for almost 10 days before returning it eventually to the family and no proper explanation was provided regarding her death. Even on the official death certificate, her cause of death has been cited as “multiple blows caused by a hard object”.
A number of people from her family has alleged that Nika was thrown from the roof of a building by the authorities, but the police has denied it all. Nika’s aunt and uncle were arrested on Wednesday.
The family fears that they “had been forced to make the confessions and broadcast them”.
“We expected them to say whatever they wanted to exonerate themselves… and they have in fact implicated themselves,” said Nasrin Shahkarami in her interview.
“I probably don’t need to try that hard to prove they’re lying… my daughter was killed in the protests on the same day that she disappeared.”
