Iranian female MP voices support for women arrested on charges of violating hijab code

Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Both the United States Department of State and a female member of parliament in Iran have released statements of support for 29 women arrested Thursday for removing their headscarves in public.

The women were mimicking the act of civil disobedience by Vida Movahed on a sidewalk on Revolution Street in Tehran on December 27.

An Iranian MP who represents Isfahan, about 450 km south of Tehran, where women disobeyed the dress code said in a statement that the arrests are part of a series discriminatory policies that ban women from taking part in public life. 

"The Girls of Revolution St. are the same girls who for years have been left behind the gates of gender discrimination," Nahid Tajeddin, the Iranian MP said while she listed restrictions on women from getting senior management posts, taking part in politics,  attending sports events, or going to live music concerts.

 

 

Men across Iran are also protesting the mandatory hijab.

 

The United States who under the administration of President Donald Trump expressed on daily basis support for anti-government protests against the Islamic Republic in December has said a statement that they support the public defiance of Iranian women. 


"The United States supports the Iranian people who are protesting against women being forced to wear the hijab," spokesperson for the US State Department, Heather Nauert said in a statement on Friday. 

"We condemn the reported arrests of at least 29 individuals for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms by standing up against the compulsory hijab."

Iran arrested 29 women on Thursday for not wearing a headscarf in public, which has been mandatory in the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Revolution.

Those arrested were accused of offending public order and referred to the prosecutor's office in Tehran, reported several Iranian news agencies.

Several women protested against the compulsory head covering law in the streets of Tehran and Isfahan on Monday and Tuesday.

They removed their scarves and waved them like flags while standing on platforms, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported, while posting photos of the protesters.

"The bail is too high," the CHRI quoted a source close to one of the arrested protesters, Narges Hosseini, as saying, "and Hosseini's family can't afford it.

A prominent human rights lawyer told AFP on Tuesday that one of the detained women had her bail set at more than $100,000.

Iran Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who is also a cleric, has called the women's protests "trivial" and "childish" moves possibly incited by foreigners.