(NewsNation) — Iranian authorities arrested a leading human rights lawyer Sunday after she attended the funeral of a teenage girl who died after being injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s metro.
Authorities detained attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh on a charge of violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. There were multiple arrests at the funeral of 16-year-old Armita Geravand, who also was not wearing a headscarf at the time she was injured.
Geravand was injured and in a coma for weeks in Tehran. Her death came after the one-year anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. She, too, was detained for not wearing a headscarf. Her death sparked nationwide protests at the time.
Moj Mahdara, an Iranian American activist known for opposing the current regime in Iran, said Geravand was stopped by the morality police and brutally beaten, eventually falling into a coma for three weeks before succumbing to her injuries. Mahdara revealed that Geravand’s family was also assaulted for simply attending her funeral, highlighting the brutality of the Iranian regime.
“It is imperative that the global community stop doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mahdara said. She stressed the need to “defund, disarm, and dismantle this regime” through nonviolent means, with a focus on applying extreme pressure to divest from the oppressive regime.
Mahdara asserted the crisis in Iran and the events in the Middle East are intimately connected. She pointed out that Iran has strategically financed and driven acts of terrorism in the region.
“The Islamic Republic had a lot of issues with this potential deal that was happening between Israel and Saudi, and they did everything they could to undermine this deal and the Abraham Accords,” Mahdara said.
According to Mahdara, Iran’s human rights abuses have been ongoing since 1979. The country has a history of mass killings and violent suppression of its citizens. She urged the international community to pay close attention to these events, as Iran’s actions have far-reaching implications for the entire region.
On Tuesday, Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for a series of drone and missile attacks on Israel. The Houthi group, known as one of several Iranian proxies in the region, has been aiming at Israel as the United States warns of escalating conflict in the Middle East.
“It’s now well-known that the Houthis are a proxy group, similar to Hezbollah and Hamas, all financed and trained by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mahdara said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.