A 29-year-old Iranian woman has died after setting herself alight after being charged for trying to attend a men's soccer match.
Sahar Khodayari, a soccer fan nicknamed "The Blue Girl" after the colors of her favorite team, Esteghlal, died in a Tehran hospital, Iranian media reported on September 9.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that she died over the weekend but that her death had been announced on September 9 after her burial under tight security measures in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom.
Khodayari's death comes days after she poured gasoline on herself and set herself alight outside a court on September 2 where she had been summoned after being charged following an attempt to enter a sports stadium to watch a soccer game.
She reportedly had burns over 90 percent of her body and her lungs had been badly damaged.
Her sister said that Khodayari suffered from bipolar disorder and that she had attempted suicide in the past.
Khodayari's sister told Iranian media that her mental state had deteriorated following her arrest and after hearing that she could be jailed for six months.
The woman said her sister attempted in mid-March to sneak into a soccer match at Tehran's Azadi Stadium while wearing a blue wig and wearing a long coat.
Khodayari told security guards that she was a woman after they tried to search her, according to her sister.
"They arrested her right there," she said in a September 5 interview with Shahrvandonline.ir.
Khodayari's arrest, her attempted suicide, and her death have led to an outcry on social media and condemnation of a state ban on female spectators that has been enforced for nearly four decades.
Her sister said that Khodayari suffered from bipolar disorder and that she had attempted suicide in the past.
Khodayari's sister told Iranian media that her mental state had deteriorated following her arrest and after hearing that she could be jailed for six months.
The woman said her sister attempted in mid-March to sneak into a soccer match at Tehran's Azadi Stadium while wearing a blue wig and wearing a long coat.
Khodayari told security guards that she was a woman after they tried to search her, according to her sister.
"They arrested her right there," she said in a September 5 interview with Shahrvandonline.ir.
Khodayari's arrest, her attempted suicide, and her death have led to an outcry on social media and condemnation of a state ban on female spectators that has been enforced for nearly four decades.
In the past, only selected groups of women have been allowed into stadiums to watch soccer matches or other men's sporting events.
Devoted female soccer fans have managed to defy the ban on rare occasions by disguising themselves as men.
"She was the daughter of Iran," Iranian lawmaker Parvaneh Salahshouri said, adding "in a place where men decide for women and deprive them of their most basic rights and women go along this blatant injustice by men."
"We're all responsible for the imprisonment and the burning of the Sahars of this country," Salahshouri said on Twitter.
Women can't watch football games in stadiums in Iran.Sahar Khodayari or "Blue Girl" was an Esteghlal F.C fan who sneaked into a game of AFC champions League and was arrested and sentenced to prison.She afterwards sat herself on fire in protest.
#ENGIRN #Qatar2022 #SayTheirNames
Sarina Esmaeilzadeh joined the protests that started in September, but during the protests, rights groups say she was “beaten to death by Iranian security forces,” per The Washington Post.
However, Iranian authorities denied responsibility for her death and claim that “she died by suicide by jumping off a roof,” according to The Washington Post.
The nonprofit organization Iran Human Rights alleges Esmaeilzadeh’s death follows a pattern of brutal beatings by Iranian security forces, and her family was forced to hold a quick private burial “under strict security measures.”
Iran Human Rights says that after four weeks of unrest, at least 185 people have been killed.
Initial protests began after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was beaten and killed by police forces for failing to adhere to strict morality laws, citing that she was taken into morality police custody for wearing a loose hijab, per The New York Times.
“The Iranian authorities knowingly decided to harm or kill people who took to the streets to express their anger at decades of repression and injustice,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said on Amnesty International’s news blog.
Fazeli said that these media even insulted Sarina’s mother when she clarified about her death, claiming that she has made the remarks under pressure or even raising doubt that she has not been her mother.
Official investigation results show that Sarina and her mother were in her grandmother’s house at the night of the incident. They ate dinner together and stayed up until 23:00 when they went to bed at the grandmother’s house. Sarina’s mother found out about the incident after the midnight.
Fazeli said that the enemies of the Islamic Revolution are resorting to every effort, including media hype, to increase the alleged number of deaths in Iranian riots so as to prolong unrests across Iran.
Citing a primary source, a statement by Amnesty International also claimed that Esmailzadeh’s family had been subjected to “intense harassment to coerce them into silence”, claims denied by Iranian officials.
Today, as news of Esmailzadeh’s death spread on social media, Iran’s Isna news agency reported that the chief justice of Alborz province said that a preliminary investigation had shown the teenager’s death was suicide after she jumped from the roof of a five-storey building, and that Esmailzadeh had a history of mental health problems.
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