Taraneh was a 28-year-old beautician who was arrested by Basij forces, raped and tortured for 22 days, and then set on fire and left in the desert. At least, that's what dissident Web users say. According to the authorities, the woman in question has been living in Canada for the past two years; and they have evidence to prove it — they've interviewed her family. So who's telling the truth?

The story of Taraneh Mousavi emerged online on 14 July, when protest blog Iranian Leftists wrote about the suspected torture, rape and murder of a young woman after allegedly talking to a friend of the aforementioned. It reported that the beautician was arrested on 28 June along with around 40 protesters. Although she herself was not participating in the protest, it was said that she was detained for wearing high heels and fashionable clothes. While the other detainees were turned over to the police at Nobonyad police station, Taraneh was taken to a house in Hosseinieh Ershad district by the Basij militia.

The post reported that a few days later the family of the young woman received a telephone call from an anonymous caller who said that Taraneh had been hospitalised following an "accident" in which her womb and anus and were damaged. When her family went to the Imam Khamenei Hospital in Karaj to look for her, a nurse told them that a girl matching Taraneh's description had been brought into the hospital by plain clothes officers and then removed a few hours later.

Two days later, the website reported that Taraneh was dead. They published what they say is the account of one her friends. The alleged friend says that Taraneh's family received another phone call in which they were informed that her burnt body had been found in the desert between Karaj and Qazvin (north-west of Tehran).

The story caused such a hullabaloo online that it managed to reach Thaddeus McCottor, a Republican congressman from Michigan, who delivered a speech to Congress on July 20, asking Supreme Leader Khomeini to look at the photo of Taraneh, saying: "Here is the truth denied by Khomeini and his misogynistic murderous regime."