When a haunting video surfaced online showing a 25-year-old Kurdish woman dangling from a hotel balcony before falling to her death, citizens of the Iranian Kurdish town of Mahabad took to the streets enraged by the suspicious circumstances surrounding the situation.
Activists say Farinaz Khosravani, a maid at the Hotel Tara, ended up on the fourth-floor balcony while trying to escape a rape attempt by an Iranian security official. They believe she either slipped off the edge or committed suicide.
Tensions have historically run high between ethnic Kurds and Iranians in the Kurdish-majority city, located in Iran's West Azerbaijan province. But Khosravani's death made them soar.
Some 25 people were injured in protests that lasted through the night on May 7 and May 8. The violence has since settled down, but the social media uproar was still raging earlier this week.
Check out the YouTube video of the riots below:
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