Schoolgirl, 16, jumps to her death ‘after dress code dispute with principal’
A 16-year-old girl took her own life by jumping from a building in Iran after a dispute with school officials for violating the dress code.
Arezoo Khavari is the latest victim of the Islamic Republic’s draconian laws, part of the government’s control over girls’ and women’s lives.
An image circulating on X shows her final moments, balancing on the edge of the rooftop of the building in the city of Shahre Ray, in the Tehran province.
Her grieving father said that she had gone on a school trip on Saturday when the assistant principal reprimanded her for her attire, the Iranian Rokna News Agency reported.
It is alleged he received a call from the school, asking, ‘Do you know what your daughter has done? She wore jeans instead of the school uniform pants.’
Arezoo’s father added: ‘Half an hour later, the school principal called again and said she had left the school without permission around 4pm, and they had no information on her whereabouts.’
School officials called the family again, instructing them to rush to the hospital.
‘I went to the hospital and was confronted with my daughter’s body,’ her father said.
Arezoo had been wearing jeans that day and briefly removed her headscarf while playing with classmates, an act the assistant principal disapproved of.
It is reported that the assistant principal filmed the schoolgirl and threatened to report her to the principal, which could lead to her expulsion.
As an Afghan national, Arezoo already faced challenges in enrolling at school.
A source told IranWire: ‘One of Arezoo’s classmates said that simply for removing her scarf and enjoying herself, she experienced intense stress.’
The family has filed a complaint against the school and the principal. According to her father, this is not the first time his daughter was ‘mistreated’.
He said: ‘This was not the first time they mistreated my daughter. Last year, they tried to deny her enrollment over things like having too many friends or having some hair visible.’
Masih Alinejad, Iranian-American journalist and women’s rights activist, said the responsibility for Arezoo’s death ‘falls squarely on the shoulders of the Islamic Regime in Iran’.
She said in a post on X: ‘The Taliban strip girls of education, and Iran’s clerics crush a girl’s spirit for letting her hair flow in the wind, for dancing, for choosing her own clothes.
‘Arezoo’s voice -like so many others – will be buried beneath the world’s louder headlines.’
Her death comes two years after the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests engulfed Iran following the killing in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini.
Efforts to enforce stringent dress codes for women and girls have intensified since the September 2022 uprising and the Iranian government has only cracked down more on remaining initiatives of women’s activism.
Since April 2024, authorities have only increased repressive measures and policies through the so-called ‘Noor’ Plan (noor meaning ‘light’ in Persian), encouraging, sanctioning and endorsing human rights violations against women and girls who are seen to be flouting the mandatory hijab.
Over the weekend, a university student in Iran was ‘violently’ arrested after stripping down to her underwear ‘in protest’ against the strict dress code for women.
The woman, who has not been named, had her dress torn by Iran’s shadowy vigilante force for ‘not wearing a headscarf’ inside Tehran’s top Islamic Azad University.
Video showed her removing her clothing and walking out onto the street in her underwear after the scuffle with the Basij on Saturday afternoon.
Samaritans are here to listen, day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for more information.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.