Zahra Bani Yaghoub

Zahra Bani Yaghoub (Persian: زهرا بنی‌یعقوب‎) (also mentioned in the media as Zahra Bani Ameri[1] 16 October 1980[2] – 13 October 2007) was an Iranian medical doctor. She died in a prison in Hamedan after she was arrested by the moral police (Basij). The incident gained attention in the press due to the possible police involvement in her death.[3]

This article is about the Indian medical doctor. For for the Italian athlete, see Zahra Bani.

Career

Born in Tehran, Bani Yaghoub studied at Tehran University medical school and worked as a volunteer physician in Hamedan Province. Zahra Bani Yaghoub was a distinguished young medical doctor and had several recognitions including her top rank in nationwide university entrance examination.[4] The police told her father: "Iran does not need such medical doctors."[4] Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi has taken the case and is currently the official lawyer of Zahra Bani Yaghoub's family.[5]

Death

In 2007, Iranian police launched a "Public security plan and Moralization Campaign". Many Iranian citizens including many women were arrested and questioned for "un-Islamic" behavior.

In 2007 Zahra Bani Yaghoub was sitting on a park bench with her fiancé when Iranian police arrested the couple. This was considered by the Iranian judiciary to be a breach of modesty laws because the two were not yet married.[6] They were taken to jail and held in separate cells, and Yaghoub died under custody the following day.[7] Iranian officials claimed that the victim committed suicide by hanging herself.[8] However the lawyer did not accept the claims and requested investigations.[9]

See also
  • History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran

Notes
  1. Kosoof – Arash Ashoorinia's Photography – 23 November 2007
  2. آفتاب – مرگ مشکوک پزشک جوان را پیگیری کنید
  3. Seeking Justice for Zahra Bani Yaghoub
  4. gooya news :: politics : روايتی ديگر از مرگ زهرا بنی عامری، دکتر زهرا به قتل رسيده يا خودکشی کرده است؟ کانون زنان
  5. روزنامه سرمايه
  6. Iran: the Looming Crisis: Can the West live with Iran's nuclear threat?
  7. Iran's brutal morality police are growing in power, warns Nobel Prize-winner
  8. Iran: Female Doctor's Prison Death Causes Public Outcry – RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
  9. http://zanestan.org/news/07,11,01,07,44,18/
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