Arezoo Badri, a mother of two, was targeted by police in the northern Iranian city of Noor on 22 July as she was walking to her car with her sister.

According to the BBC, Arezoo Badri was driving home with her sister in the northern city of Noor on 22 July when police attempted to pull her over to confiscate her car.

The driver did not comply with the order to stop, prompting the officers to shoot, the police commander in Noor told Iran’s state-run news agency, without naming Badri.

The BBC report said the police officer first shot at the car’s tyre before targeting her directly from the driver’s side.

“The bullet entered her lung and severely damaged her spinal cord.”

After being initially taken to a hospital in Noor, Badri was transferred to a hospital in Sari, the provincial capital, for lung surgery. A week later, she was taken to the Iranian capital, Tehran.

The bullet was only removed after 10 days, the BBC said.

Badri is now in the intensive care unit of the police-owned Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Tehran and under tight security.

According to the source, her family is allowed only brief visits, during which their mobile phones are confiscated. Authorities have prohibited visitors from taking photos or video of Ms Badri – though some have emerged.

On 16 September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, was detained and murdered by the morality police in Tehran for not complying with the headscarf rules, triggering an unprecedented uprising. The uprising was dubbed the “Jin Jiyan Azadi” [Woman, Life, Freedom] rebellion.