23 October 2023 - Roya Zakeri,a young wom
an from Tabriz, was brutalized by security forces on Sunday, October 15, 2023, for not covering her hair.
A viral video clip of Ms. Zakeri showed her sitting on the ground and crying out slogans against the mullahs’ supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
For this reason, security forces beat her so viciously that she went unconscious. Then, they took Roya Zakeri from among the crowd by ambulance and transferred her to the women’s ward of Razi Hospital in Tabriz, which is a neurology and psychiatry hospital.
Roya Zakeri, 31 years old, and comes from the city of Marand in East Azerbaijan Province (NW Iran). She has a Master of Science degree in Computer Sciences and resides in Tabriz.
Based on what she explained to people in a recently published video clip, she had gone on hunger strike for five days in the custody of security forces last year during the 2022 nationwide uprising.
Roya Zakeri was arrested in October 2022 in front of Tabriz University. She remained in detention for an unspecified period.
The Iranian state-run media falsely claimed that Ms. Zakeri had a mental illness and was experiencing delusions on the street. They said she had been transferred to medical facilities for treatment.
Presently, Roya Zakeri is held under strict security measures in Razi Hospital. She is not allowed visits with her family. Intelligence services agents have warned shop owners and businesses in the neighborhood to refrain from giving interviews to media outlets.
The clerical regime’s security and intelligence services are playing out the same scenario they did in Tehran for Armita Geravand: preventing the family from visiting their daughter, intimidating the relatives and eyewitnesses, and warning them against having any interviews, and controlling the situation before it breaks out into a protest.
The Iranian regime has a record of taking political prisoners and protesters to mental hospitals and injecting them with drugs that harm their mental health and well-being.
