- Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died Friday in a Tehran hospital.
- Iran's morality police arrested her on Tuesday for not wearing her hijab correctly, per reports.
A 22-year-old woman died on Friday, a few days after being arrested by Iran's Islamic morality police for allegedly not following rules relating to hijab-wearing, according to reports.
Her death followed her detention on Tuesday evening for allegedly not correctly wearing a hijab — a head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and is mandatory in Iran.
Tehran police said Amini had been arrested for "justification and education" about the hijab, per BBC News.
Amini and her family had traveled from Iran's Kurdistan region to Tehran, the country's capital, when she was stopped, CNN reported.
Witnesses said Amini was grabbed by police officers and forced inside a vehicle, according to the citizen journalism news site IranWire.
Other witnesses told RFE/RL that Amini appeared to have been beaten inside the vehicle while transported to a detention center. Tehran police deny this.
Amini's family was informed that Amini had been sent to hospital hours after her arrest, per The Guardian. She was then transferred to an intensive-care unit.
Police later told the family that Amini had suffered a "sudden" heart attack, according to state media. Her family said Amini had no pre-existing conditions that would feasibly explain such an unexpected heart problem, according to BBC News.
She died in the hospital on Friday, prompting several human rights organizations to call for an investigation into the questionable circumstances surrounding the death.
"The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated," Amnesty International said.
Human Rights Watch, an international human rights NGO, joined the calls on Friday for a "transparent investigation."
National security advisor Jake Sullivan said the US is "deeply concerned" by the "unforgivable" death. "We will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable for such human rights abuses," he said on Twitter.
Amini's death sparked an outcry in Iran, including a protest in a Tehran square near the hospital she died in, according to Sky News.
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, President Ebrahim Raisi has asked Iran's interior ministry to "investigate the cause of the incident with urgency and special attention."