As more women defy Iran’s mandatory dress code, the country’s chief justice has warned to arrest women who appear in public without hijab ‘without mercy,’ news agency Reuters reported citing Iranian media.
“Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with (our) values,” Ejei was quoted as saying. “Those who commit such anomalous acts will be punished and will be prosecuted without mercy,” he said, without elaborating on what the punishment entails.
Ejei, Iran’s said that law enforcement officers were “obliged to refer obvious crimes and any kind of abnormality that is against the religious law and occurs in public to judicial authorities.”
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei’s warning comes after the Interior Ministry issued a statement on Thursday reinforcing the government’s mandatory hijab law.
The upswell of discontent and outrage with the restrictions is still a powerful force in Iranian society, as seen by videos and photographs uploaded online.
A video uploaded this week shows a guy hurling a tub of yoghurt at an unclothed woman. Male and female passersby were outraged by his actions.
Following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in September 2022, imprisoned by morality police in Tehran for reportedly wearing her hijab ‘improperly,’ protests surged across the Islamic Republic. Since December, thousands of people have been detained, and four demonstrators have been executed. Yet the authorities show no signs of backing down.
