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IRANIAN WOMEN VIOLENTLY DRAGGED FROM STREETS BY POLICE AMID HIJAB
CRACKDOWN  
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Deepa Parent
April 24, 2024
The Guardian
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_ Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new
draconian campaign against women and girls _

Women walking without headscarves in Tehran in January 2023 , (Arash
Khamooshi/NYT)

 

Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets
of Iran [[link removed]] and detained by
security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s
hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone
strikes on Israel on 13 April.

A new campaign, called _Noor_ (“light” in Persian), was
announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks
against Israel
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to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab
rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

Hours later, videos verified by human rights groups showing women and
girls being forcefully arrested by agents of the notorious
Gasht-e-Irshad (“morality police”) flooded social media along with
stories of beatings and assault.

One mother and daughter walking through a busy Tehran square were
surrounded by five chador-clad female agents and two male agents, who
hurled insults and accusations before they grabbed the women. When
they resisted arrest, they were violently dragged into the van, a
source close to the family said.

Dina Ghalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University and
was among the first to tweet about a confrontation. On her now
suspended X (formerly Twitter) account, she said: “Yesterday in the
police room of Sadeghiyeh metro station, I insisted that I had the
right to use the metro as a citizen and a taxpayer. But then, they
violently dragged me into a room and Tasered me. They handcuffed me
and one of the officers sexually assaulted me.”

[Iranian police officers stand by a traffic barrier preparing to stop
cars.]

Women have reported that vehicles can be stopped by police if
passengers are not wearing hijabs. Photograph: Wana News
Agency/Reuters

A day after her post, she was reportedly arrested and transferred to
the notorious Evin prison. The state judiciary’s Mizan news agency
announced that Ghalibaf will face legal action and refuted her
allegations of sexual assault.

However, jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi
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a voice message – published by relatives on Instagram – about
Ghalibaf’s visible bruises. In the post, she urged Iranian women to
share their stories of arrest and sexual assault at the hands of the
security forces.

The Guardian spoke to the families of two women who were arrested last
week and three women who were arrested by the Gasht-e-Irshad. One
young woman from Tehran said: “Around eight agents surrounded me on
Saturday and started screaming at me. They hurl insults like
‘whore’, ‘naked America-loving slut’ – all while kicking me
in the legs, stomach and everywhere. They don’t care where they hit
you.”

Another woman said: “Both women and men touch our bodies during
arrests. They say they’re religious and loyal Muslims, but don’t
care if the male agents touch our bodies, which is supposedly
forbidden for them to do. There were around six evil women agents and
three of them attacked me. Two of them held my hands [behind] my back
and one of them tried to throw me into the white van. Two male agents
then violently grabbed my arms and pushed me into the van. While in
the van, they were verbally abusing us and took five or six of us –
arrested for hijab – to the detention centre in Gisha.”

The woman added that at the detention centre she saw about 40 detained
women. After spending more than five hours in detention, where they
were subjected to insults and beatings, some of the women were
released.

A family member told the Guardian: “My mother was kicked in her
legs, and now has bruises and long lasting injuries to her legs.
During her arrest, the agents called her ‘ugly’, ‘old dog’ and
a ‘crone’, and continued hitting her.”

The Guardian has seen pictures of at least two women who showed signs
of violent attacks, which they say occurred during their detention
last week. Since nationwide protests gripped Iran after the death in
custody of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini
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independent human rights organisations and the UN fact-finding
mission [[link removed]] on
Iran have investigated cases of rape and sexual assault
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protesters, concluding that the Iranian regime committed crimes
against humanity
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Speaking on the continued repression, Shabnam, a student, said: “In
and around Valiasr Square there’s always police present. It’s not
just ‘morality police’ or hijab bans, even the traffic police have
joined hands in making our lives hell. They stop motorcycles, cars,
taxis … wherever they find women driving or seated without a hijab.
Some get fined, some have their vehicles confiscated and others get
away with a warning but later receive an SMS that they need to come
and surrender their vehicle because they’ve defied hijab rules. Many
of my friends have received these SMSs.”

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, has launched the
United Against Gender Apartheid campaign in collaboration with Iranian
and Afghan activists to urge the international community to codify
gender apartheid.

[An Iranian woman not wearing headscarf (hijab) on the back of a
motorbike in a street in Tehran]

Many Iranian women are refusing to wear the hijab despite the
crackdowns. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

“I want the free world to hear the tragic stories of women who
experienced gender discrimination in Iran and Afghanistan in a united
movement,” she said.

Kosar Eftekhari, a 24-year-old artist was blinded by the security
forces during protests and has now joined other women to speak up.
“I was arrested eight times by the ‘morality police’ – the
Islamic Republic took my eyesight simply for being unveiled,” said
Eftekhari, urging world leaders to recognise and classify the Islamic
Republic as a gender apartheid regime.

The “chastity and hijab bill”
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sent back to the Iranian parliament by the country’s Guardian
Council in October 2023 for further clarifications of “vague”
terms. Human rights activists fear women could face longer jail terms
and the harshest punishments when the law is implemented.

An Iranian student said: “There are hijab ‘protectors’ swarming
and stationed almost permanently in the Shahr and Enghelab theatre
subway. There’s no escaping them and I want the world to know.

“We are not going anywhere, there’s no wearing of hijab or
following the rules of this regime. We boycotted the elections and we
won’t stop.”

* Iran
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* government repression
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* Iranian women
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* Iranian protests
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