Iran’s parliament on Sunday approved a 20 percent hike to the salaries of state security forces amid a wave of protests against the authorities following the death in custody of young Kurdish-Iranian woman Masha Amini for improperly wearing the veil.
Parliament claims the hike is aimed at reflecting the security danger faced by security forces relative to civilian officials, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reports.
The decision was adopted by 164 votes in favor, 29 votes against and 15 abstentions.
The amendment was introduced by Rep. Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, who on Tuesday accused two Iranian journalists of working for the CIA for taking a picture of Amini’s hospitalization and covering his funeral.
The photo was taken by Niloufar Hamedi, a reporter for ‘Shargh Daily’, a reformist newspaper in Tehran. She was immediately arrested along with another reporter, Elaheh Mohammadi, who took pictures of the funeral in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, in the Kurdish areas of western Iran.
