Under Iranian law, which is based on the country’s interpretation of Sharia, women must cover their hair with a hijab (headscarf) and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to disguise their figures.
Since 2006, special police units formally known as the Guidance Patrols (Gasht-e Ershad) have been tasked with enforcing those rules.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was detained by the force in Tehran on 13 September. She died three days later in hospital.
There were reports that officers beat her head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles while taking her to a “re-education centre”. However, authorities blamed her death on an underlying health condition – something her family denied.