17-year-old found dead amid anti-hijab protests in Iran
5 October, 2022 | Riya Girdhar
She vanished amid Iran's anti-hijab protests. Her body was returned to her family a few days later. Nika Shakarami's nose had been smashed, and her skull had been hammered. The 17-year-old is one o...
Nika Shakarami went disappeared during anti-regime rallies in Iran. Her body was given to her family a week later, with her nose smashed and her skull broken from blows.
She vanished amid Iran’s anti-hijab protests. Her body was returned to her family a few days later. Nika Shakarami’s nose had been smashed, and her skull had been hammered. The 17-year-old is one of several people killed in the Islamic Republic as a result of a police crackdown on women-led protests.
Nika Shakarami, 17, was one of thousands who took to the streets across Iran to protest the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in moral police detention for reportedly not wearing her hijab properly.
She vanished during a demonstration. Her body was returned a week later, with her nose smashed and her skull damaged from blows.
According to sources, Nika Shakarami told a friend in her last phone contact that she was fleeing security agents.
According to reports, the Shakarami family was not permitted to see her head when they went to identify the body. Her nose had been broken. A heavy item, maybe a baton, had repeatedly smashed Nika’s skull. The cause of her odd injuries is unknown at this time.
Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian, was pronounced dead on September 16 after being held for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothing, provoking Iran’s worst wave of popular protest in nearly three years.
Within days, protests erupted across the country, with women taking to the streets to denounce moral policing. Women wore veils that were waved and burned, and some cut their hair in public.
However, Iran has blamed outside forces, particularly the United States and its Western allies, of fomenting the national protests.