The Iranian authorities have closed more than 150 companies because they did not comply with the headscarf obligation for women. This is reported by the Iranian news agency Tasnim. Since yesterday, Iranian police have been using special cameras to identify women who do not wear headscarves. Those cameras are in public areas.
If the police have identified the women who broke the law, they will first receive a text message with a warning. Shopkeepers are also responsible for compliance with the headscarf obligation. Shops and offices in which people do not comply with the rules are threatened with closure, the police warned last week.
In the first 24 hours that the cameras recorded, 137 shops and 18 restaurants and reception areas were already closed. According to the Iranian police, they had not heeded previous warnings, Tasnim writes.
The photos of Iranian women without headscarves below were not captured by the surveillance cameras.
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EPAIranian women without headscarves in Tehran -
EPAIranian women without headscarves in Tehran -
EPAIranian women without headscarves in Tehran
Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, women have been required to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing. Violators can be reprimanded, fined or arrested. In September last year, 22-year-old Kurdish Jina Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly. Amini died after her arrest.
Months of protests followed her death, with Iranian women taking off their headscarves. They posted videos on social media in which they burned their headscarves and cut their hair. The Iranian regime cracked down on the demonstrators. Tens of thousands of them were arrested and, according to various human rights organizations, more than 300 demonstrators were killed.
The unrest lasted for months, but now seems to have passed its peak. Despite the crackdown by the authorities, women continue to refuse to wear headscarves. They run a high risk of being arrested or harassed. Two weeks ago, a man smeared two women with yogurt because they were not wearing headscarves. The women were arrested for not covering their hair, the man for disturbing public order.
The video below from NOS op 3 explains the protests in Iran last fall.
- ‘Highest number of executions in Iran since 2015’
- Women in Iran smeared with yogurt and arrested for not wearing headscarves
- The Iranian regime seems to be surviving the wave of protests for the time being, despite ‘cracks’
- Iranian women burn headscarves and cut hair after Mahsa Amini’s death
