President Ebrahim Raisi said this Saturday that hijab was the law in iran after a viral video showed a man throwing yogurt at two unveiled women in a shop near a holy Shiite Muslim city.
A growing number of women have defied the authorities by removing their headscarves after nationwide protests that followed the death in September of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman in moral police custody for allegedly violating the rules of the hijab. Security forces violently put down the revolt.
The judicial authorities of a town near the northeastern city of Mashhad issuedNo arrest warrants for man seen pouring yogurt above the heads of the two women, a mother and her daughter. Both women were also the subject of arrest warrants. by violating Iran’s strict female dress rulesstate media reported.
Watch: Citizens in the city of Shandiz in Iran’s northeast grapple with a member of IRGC’s Basij militia who pours a bucket of yogurt on the heads of two women defending the Islamic Republic’s hijab regulations by not wearing any headscarf. pic.twitter.com/M8VEmy3lmZ
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) March 31, 2023
Risking arrest for defying the mandatory dress code, women are still widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, stores and streets across the country. Videos of unveiled women resisting the moral police have flooded social media.
legal matter
In live comments on state television, Raisi said: “If some people say they don’t believe (in hijab)… it’s good to use persuasion… But the important point is that there is a legal requirement… and hijab is today a legal matter”.
Authorities said the owner of the dairy store who confronted the shooter had been warned. Reports on social media showed that his store had been closedalthough he was quoted by a local news agency as saying it was allowed to reopen and had to “explain” to a court.
The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, previously threatened to prosecute women who appear in public without a veil, Iranian media reported. “Revealing equals enmity for (our) values,” Ejei was quoted as saying by various news sites.
Covers since 1979
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Under Iran’s Islamic sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are required to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to conceal their figure. Violators have faced public reprimands, fines or arrest.
A statement from The Ministry of the Interior made it clear last Thursday that there would be no “withdrawal or tolerance” on the subject by describing the headscarf as “one of the foundations of the civilization of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic.” Besides, urged citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have emboldened hardliners in recent decades to attack women without impunity.