Roya Zakeri, the new victim of Hijab Patrols in Iran
Two weeks ago, we talked about a young girl, 16-year-old Armita Geravand, who said no to the Hijab patrol in the subway. The female patrol pushed her to the ground and Armita fell down with her head hitting a sharp edge. The altercation led to cerebral hemorrhage. She went unconscious and has been in a coma since this incident happened on Sunday, October 1.
The incident in Tabriz occurred exactly two weeks after what happened to Armita in Tehran. Tabriz is the capital of East Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran. Roya Zakeri was shopping at a pastry shop in downtown Tabriz on Sunday, October 15, but when she stepped out, some Hijab patrols and plainclothes agents confronted her and told her to put on her veil. When she refused to do so, they beat her so badly that her legs hurt.
So she sat down on the ground and started crying out, “Down with the dictator,” and “Death to Khamenei.”
Now, the woman who was later identified as Roya Zakeri, was viciously brutalized by the Hijab patrols for insulting the mullahs’ supreme leader. They hit her so much that she went unconscious. And then, they carried her away in an ambulance.
Later, people said she had been taken to a mental hospital in Tabriz. Razi Hospital is a neurology and psychiatric hospital.
I have to point out, that it’s a common practice by the Iranian regime that they take political prisoners to mental hospitals, where they experience torture and are given drug injections which jeopardize their health.
The Iranian regime and its intelligence services are on full alert to prevent the outbreak of any protests.
Roya Zakeri is held under strict security measures in Razi Hospital and is not allowed visits with her family.
The intelligence services have reportedly warned all shop owners and businesses in the neighborhood to refrain from giving any information to anyone and or any media outlet.
The clerical regime’s security and intelligence services are playing out the same scenario they did in Tehran for Armita Geravand: preventing the family from visiting their daughter, intimidating the relatives and eyewitnesses, and warning them against having any interviews, and controlling the situation before it breaks out into a protest.
The Iranian state-run media falsely claimed that Ms. Zakeri had a mental illness and was experiencing delusions on the street. And so that’s why she had been transferred to medical facilities for treatment. But nobody believes these lies.
Actually, she was in complete mental health and showed maximum bravery when shouting against the mullahs’ supreme leader.
A recorded video shows her saying that she was on hunger strike for five days while in detention last year.
Roya Zakeri is 31 years old and has a master’s degree in computer sciences. She was arrested during the protests last October in front of Tabriz University.
