A woman was shot and left paraplegic after she was shot by police for allegedly violating Iran's hijab laws, the BBC reported.
According to the report, in late July, 31-year-old Arezoo Badri was accosted by police who attempted to pull her over and confiscate her car as she was driving home, allegedly because she was not covering her hair correctly at an earlier time. When she did not pull over, the police shot at her, striking her in the lungs and spine.
The incident occurred in the city of Noor in northern Iran.
A source familiar with the case told the BBC, "She is paralysed from the waist down, and doctors have said it will take months to determine whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not."
Accordong to the report, the bullet was not removed from Badri's body until ten days after she was brought to the hospital.
In April 2023, Iran announced a new crackdown on women who do not cover their hair in the manner required by Iranian law. The crackdown included the use of CCTV to identify women who do not cover their hair properly in order to track them down later. Among the punishments announced were that cars carrying women who did not cover their hair properly wound be confiscated, as police attempted to do with Badri's car.
In September 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, was arrested in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly and died in police custody.
Since Amini’s death, a growing number of Iranian women have been seen in public without hijab head scarves or observing the rules against clothes that are deemed too tight-fitting or otherwise revealing.
The government crackdown on the demonstrations that followed Amini’s death resulted in hundreds of people being killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested.
A fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations said in March that Amini’s death was unlawful and caused by violence.
In September 2023, one year after Amini's death, Iran passed new legislation stipulating that Iranian women who flout the strict Islamic dress code mandating head coverings and modest clothing would face up to 10 years' prison.