With nearly a month having passed since the suspicious death of a young doctor, Zahra ‎Bani Yaghoub, in a Hamedan prison, new efforts are under way to discover the real ‎reason behind the doctor’s death. ‎

In the latest developments, the Alumni Association of Majlis Representatives wrote an ‎open letter to Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, head of Iran’s judiciary, asking him to ‎investigate the suspicious death of this doctor in prison. More than 400 former Majlis ‎representatives are members of the Association. ‎

Noting the young doctor’s family background and conditions surrounding her arrest, the ‎authors of the letter pose nine questions regarding the details of this case. The tone and ‎substance of the questions suggest that the letter’s authors believe Bani Yaghoub’s death ‎to be more like a murder than a suicide, a claim that Bani Yaghoub’s relatives have been ‎making since day one. ‎

Bani Yaghoub’s family argues that, in her last telephone conversation with her brother, ‎Zahra did not exhibit any signs of wanting to attempt suicide. On the contrary, she was ‎eagerly awaiting her bail to be posted so that she could be released. Zahra was arrested ‎by Basiji forces more than a month ago while she was spending time with her fiancé at a ‎public park. Forty-eight hours later, it was announced to her family, “Zahra has ‎committed suicide using a piece of advertising banner cloth and has lost her life.” ‎

Zahra Bani Yaghoub’s family and her attorney have submitted a complaint against ‎Hamedan’s Basiji brigade. They argue that Zahra did not commit suicide. According to ‎various reports, Zahra studied in schools for gifted children, received the 26th highest ‎score in the nationwide college entrance exam, and graduated 1.5 years ago from Tehran ‎University’s medical school. ‎

An unofficial report indicated that a number of Revolutionary Guards commanders met ‎last week with Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, special representative of the Supreme Leader, and ‎asked him to investigate this case. ‎

According to this report, Bani Yaghoub’s father is a clerk at a Revolutionary Guard ‎facility, and this has caused Revolutionary Guards commanders to be upset with the death ‎of one of their colleague’s daughters. ‎

Amir Kabir website reported that a group of Revolutionary Guards families told Nateq ‎Nouri, “When a religious person and her family are treated in this way, such that family ‎members of this person believe that they have no recourse in this judicial system, and ‎they have been treated by officials in such a negative manner, then whatever is told of the ‎inappropriate and insulting behavior of the police and Basijis and judicial officials with ‎the public is true. The relatives of this woman have told Revolutionary Guards ‎commanders and their families that they never imagined they would be treated like this in ‎a regime for which they sacrificed everything that they had.” ‎