Hijab is the regulation in Iran as unveiled ladies face ‘yoghurt assault’, says President Ebrahim Raisi

President Ebrahim Raisi has stated that the hijab is “a legal matter” in Iran after a viral video appeared to point out a person throwing yoghurt at two unveiled ladies.

Tehran,UPDATED: Apr 2, 2023 09:14 IST

Veiled Iranian ladies attend a conservatives marketing campaign gathering for the upcoming parliamentary elections and the upcoming vote on the Assembly of Experts, in Tehran February 24, 2016. (Reuters photograph)

By Reuters: President Ebrahim Raisi stated on Saturday that the hijab was the regulation in Iran after a viral video confirmed a person throwing yoghurt at two unveiled ladies in a store close to a holy Shi’ite Muslim metropolis.

Growing numbers of ladies have defied authorities by discarding their veils after nationwide protests that adopted the loss of life in September of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady within the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating hijab guidelines. Security forces violently put down the revolt.

Judicial authorities in a city close to the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad issued arrest warrants for the person seen pouring yoghurt over the heads of the 2 ladies, a mom and her daughter. They have been additionally the topic of arrest warrants for flouting Iran’s strict feminine gown guidelines, state media reported.

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Risking arrest for defying the compulsory gown code, ladies are nonetheless extensively seen unveiled in malls, eating places, retailers and streets across the nation. Videos of unveiled ladies resisting the morality police have flooded social media.

In reside remarks on state tv, Raisi stated: “If some people say they don’t believe (in the hijab)… it’s good to use persuasion … But the important point is that there is a legal requirement … and the hijab is today a legal matter.”

Authorities stated the proprietor of the dairy store, who confronted the attacker, had been warned. Reports on social media confirmed his store had been shut, though he was quoted by an area information company as saying he had been allowed to reopen and was as a result of “give explanations” to a court docket.

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei earlier threatened to prosecute “without mercy” ladies who seem in public unveiled, Iranian media reported.

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“Unveiling is tantamount to enmity of (our) values,” Ejei was quoted as saying by a number of information websites.

Under Iran’s Islamic sharia regulation, imposed after the 1979 revolution, ladies are obliged to cowl their hair and put on lengthy, loose-fitting garments to disguise their figures. Violators have confronted public rebuke, fines or arrest.

Describing the veil as “one of the civilizational foundations of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” an Interior Ministry assertion on Thursday stated there could be no “retreat or tolerance” on the difficulty.

It urged residents to confront unveiled ladies. Such directives have in previous a long time emboldened hardliners to assault ladies with out impunity.

READ | What the Iranian anti-hijab protest unveiled

Published On:

Apr 2, 2023