In a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Foreign Affairs urged an independent investigation into the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
“Women’s rights are human rights and must be respected, as is the right to peaceful protest,” Hoekstra said on Twitter after the conversation.
Amini died last week after she was arrested by the religious police in Iran for not following the Islamic dress code. According to the protesters, Amini received a fatal blow to her head by the police and died at the station. Police deny and say she died of natural causes.
Since her death, thousands of people have been demonstrating in numerous Iranian cities against the regime’s repressive course. In many cities, women have cut their hair in protest against Amini’s death.
During the conversation with Amir-Abdollahian, Hoekstra also insisted that Iran resume negotiations to revive the nuclear deal. The United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, which restricted Iran’s nuclear program, four years ago under then-President Donald Trump. As a result, Tehran no longer felt bound by the agreements and resumed, among other things, the enrichment of uranium to much higher concentrations than necessary for generating energy in nuclear reactors.