A 16-year-old girl’s death in Tehran has been blamed on “inappropriate treatment from school authorities” over her choice of clothing, according to sources in Iran.
Arezo Khavari was the youngest of three children studying in the ninth grade at Kowsar School in Shahr-e Rey. She died on Sunday November 4 after falling from a building.
Many sources have alleged that Arezo ended her own life, with a photo circulating of a female figure standing on the edge of a rooftop of a building, but no authorities have confirmed this.
“It was Sunday, just before the evening prayer, when Arezo’s family said their daughter had left the school, and they hadn’t heard from her since. All the family members were searching for her,” a person close to the family told Rukhshana Media.
The source added that after hours of searching, the family received a call from the school authorities informing them their daughter had fallen from the sixth floor of a building and was taken to Haft Tir Hospital.
“One of Arezo’s classmates said, after the incident, that during the field trip taken with the school, Arezo was wearing jeans and, among her friends, playfully took off her headscarf and was laughing and joking.
“The vice-principal allegedly filmed her without her knowledge, and threatened that he would show it to the principal to have Arezo expelled. This had an impact on Arezo’s spirits that, on the way back [from the school excursion], she was really down,” the source said.
Arezo’s father initially shared details of the incident with Iranian media outlets. He said that school authorities contacted him earlier on the same day to inform him his daughter had worn jeans instead of the school’s required uniform pants, which was against the school’s rules.
He said that later that afternoon, the school principal called again to inform him that Arezo had left the school without permission.
However, shortly after, he received the news that his daughter had died at Haft Tir Hospital.
“We have filed a complaint against the school authorities at the Shahr-e Rey police station. We filed a complaint against the school principal. This was not the first time they had mistreated my daughter,” her father said in an interview with Rokna news agency.
“Last year, they tried to prevent her from enrolling, using excuses like why she had so many friends or why some of her hair was visible.”
The Tehran Department of Education issued a statement that a female Afghan student residing in Shahr-e Rey was injured after falling from a residential building after she left school on Sunday November 4. She was immediately transferred to a hospital but later passed away.
“The exact motive and reasons for this student’s actions have not yet been determined, and the matter is currently being studied and investigated by the Education officials in the districts of Tehran Province and other relevant authorities,” the statement said.
Arezo’s death has sparked widespread reactions from social activists in both Iran and Afghanistan on social media.
Many have shared that she fled from the conflict in Afghanistan and the Taliban, only to become “a victim of the strict and misogynistic laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
“Arezo Khavari, who became a victim of discrimination and unjust suffering, did not deserve this fate. Her suicide is not just a personal tragedy, but a symbol of a system and society that has woven discrimination into the very fabric of Afghan migrants’ lives,” Laiila Mohammadi posted on X.
