Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – Iran’s chief prosecutor has warned women who have rejected wearing a hijab while participating in recent nationwide anti-government demonstrations to follow the country’s mandatory head scarf law “for their own safety and health.”
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Shari’a law and the laws of the Islamic republic have made the head scarf mandatory for women and added, “we cannot say that the hijab is a personal matter.”
Montazeri also claimed on December 25 that the propaganda of “enemies of the country” caused women to come out without a hijab during the protests and commit an “obvious crime.”
The hijab — the head scarf worn by Muslim women — became compulsory in public for Iranian women and girls over the age of 9 after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Many Iranian women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.
The growing willingness of women in major Iranian cities to eschew the hijab is reflected in the results of a survey published in Persian on December 13 by the Iran Open Data team of the London-based nonprofit group Small Media.
The group said it surveyed 5,582 Internet users based in all of Iran’s 31 provinces from November 17 to November 21, and eight of 10 women who answered the questions said they went out in public without a hijab in the last two months.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16 while she was in police custody for an alleged violation of the country’s head scarf rules, many reports of riots in various prisons have surfaced. Judicial authorities have yet to publish an account of the number of people injured and killed in those riots.
A brutal government crackdown on public demonstrators has seen several thousand arrested, including journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others voicing opposition to the government.
Lawmakers have demanded an even sharper reaction, calling for heavy penalties, including death sentences, for protesters.
Two public executions have taken place, according to authorities, and rights groups say many others have been handed death sentences, while at least two dozen others face charges that could carry the death penalty.
