Iranian Student Arrested after Removing Clothes at University | BBC News

Nov 3, 2024 | A female Iranian student has been detained by security guards after she stripped to her underwear in public at a university in Tehran.

A spokesman for the Islamic Azad University said she'd been found to have a "mental disorder". But many social media users in Iran have said her actions were more likely a protest against the country's strict dress code.

Under Iranian law women and girls above the age of puberty must cover their hair with a hijab and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to disguise their figures.

What has happened to the student since being detained is unknown.

Iran’s Onerous Hijab Law for Women Is Now a Campaign Issue

THE NEW YORK TIMES: In a sign that a women-led movement has gained ground, all of the men running for president have distanced themselves from the harsh tactics used to enforce mandatory hijab.

Iranian officials insisted for decades that the law requiring women to cover their hair and dress modestly was sacrosanct and not even worth discussion. They dismissed the struggle by women who challenged the law as a symptom of Western meddling.

Now, as Iran holds a presidential election this week, the issue of mandatory hijab, as the hair covering is known, has become a hot campaign topic. And all six of the men running, five of them conservative, have sought to distance themselves from the methods of enforcing the law, which include violence, arrests and monetary fines.

“Elections aside, politics aside, under no circumstances should we treat Iranian women with such cruelty,” Mustafa Pourmohammadi, a conservative presidential candidate and cleric with senior roles in intelligence, said in a round-table discussion on state television last week. He has also said that government officials should be punished over the hijab law because it was their duty to educate women about why they should wear hijab, not violently enforce it.

The hijab has long been a symbol of religious identity but has also been a political tool in Iran. And women have resisted the law, in different ways, ever since it went into effect after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. » | Farnaz Fassihi and Leily Nikounazar | Monday, June 24, 2024

Women Leaving Islam | Documentary

Feb 1, 2021 | In this powerful film, six ex-Muslim women activists share their moving stories of growing up in Muslim families and Muslim-majority countries and the violence, loss and shunning they faced because of their apostasy.

The women talk about everything from tearing their hijab on door handles as a child, wearing a burkini on a beach in Italy, wanting to scream their atheism in Mecca during Hajj, losing custody of a child after a husband’s accusations of blasphemy, reporting a violent fundamentalist father, forging a male guardian’s signature in order to flee their country and being shunned for defending gay rights…

Despite the risks, the women speak of hope, happiness and freedom from Islam and the hijab. The brave women: Fay Rahman, Halima Salat, Mimzy Vidz, Rana Ahmad and Zara Kay reside/have resided in Australia, Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands.

They are from backgrounds as diverse as Bangladeshi, British, Egyptian/Moroccan, Saudi, Somali/Kenyan, Pakistani and Tanzanian.

Iranian Woman Whipped 74 Times for Refusing to Wear Hijab

THE TELEGRAPH: 33-year-old was charged with 'encouraging permissiveness' after several Tehran outings

Roya Heshmati, 33, was told she was being punished because she had violated public morals
An Iranian woman received 74 lashes for refusing to wear the hijab, defying the strict dress code even as she was taken to be whipped.

Roya Heshmati, 33, was charged with “encouraging permissiveness” after appearing unveiled on several occasions in the capital, Tehran.

“Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,” and “for violating public morals,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said late on Saturday.

Ms Heshmati was also reportedly ordered to pay a fine of 12 million rials (£225).

“The convicted … encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,” Mizan reported.

…

“As the lashes struck my body, I whispered, ‘In the name of woman, in the name of life, dawn will come,’” BBC Persian quoted her as saying, adding she had refused to cover her hair even as she was transported to be flogged. » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Sunday, January 7, 2024

As I have said before, Islam is a pox on the free world. Unfortunately, this dark thinking has been brought to our shores. Many a Muslim living in Britain longs for the introduction of the Sharia’h to replace our common law. Beware! – © Mark Alexander

If Brits Want to Envision Their Future, Listen to This!

Nov 24, 2023 | Mohammed Hijab

Brits’ future has been handed over to Muslims by stupid politicians on both the left and right. Millions of people have been allowed into the UK, in particular, and into the West, in general, without so much as asking the electorates if this is what they wanted!

So much twaddle is spoken about democracy; so much praise is showered on democracy as a system of government; yet, for the most part, we don’t live in democracies. Yes, we vote representatives into office during elections. But once elected into office, they proceed to do what they damn well please. This is not how true democracy should function.

The best, properly-functioning democracy I can think of is Switzerland. But Switzerland stands in stark contrast to the rest of the faux democracies of the West. In Switzerland, the people have a far greater degree of control than anywhere else in the West that I can think of. Kudos to Switzerland! The Swiss are blessed. The rest of us are screwed! We are up a creek without a paddle!

In the UK, in particular, our politicians have made a right mess. In German, we would call it ‘eine Sauerei’, a dirty mess. In the vernacular, we would say they have screwed up – royally!

I tell you now: Islam will never be able to co-exist with the post-Christian and increasingly secularizing West. To Muslims, especially devout Muslims, there is only one way to live: their way. There is only one belief system: their belief system. There is only one god: Allah. Jesus was not crucified. Jesus was not the ‘Son of God’. There is only one set of laws to follow: Allah’s laws, or the Shariah (الشريعة) .

Our politicians have always been deluded when it comes to Islam: they have always thought that Muslims, once they come to live in the West, with all the freedoms the West has to offer, they will rejoice in those freedoms and eventually live like us, the infidels (الكفار) (in their eyes). No so!

Muslims are committed to their faith, the Dīn (الدين), Islam. Wild horses wouldn’t drag most of them away from it. They are committed to Allah, and to their prophet. For the secular Westerner, this is a difficult concept to grasp. And it is precisely because Westerners cannot grasp it that they keep on repeating the same mistakes re-Islam, over and over and over again.

It is a sad fact of life that two diametrically-opposed ways of life cannot co-exist. The stronger of the two systems will always eventually win through. It is my sincere belief that the stronger of the two systems is Islam, not the secular West.

Listening to Mohammed Hijab in the video above should draw your attention to one very important aspect of his speech: his determination. So quite how we Westerners will deal with the challenges ahead, I do not know. But challenges there will be – serious challenges, and in abundance. Therefore, if we wish for the West to prevail, we have got work to do! This is not going to be easy. The whole of the Western world is being challenged like never before in recent history. – © Mark Alexander

Iranian Mother Jailed for 13 Years after Denouncing Death of Son Shot at Protest

GUARDIAN EUROPE: Mahsa Yazdani convicted of blasphemy and ‘insulting supreme leader’ as Iran regime targets families of those killed in protests

Mohammad Javad Zahedi with his mother, Mahsa Yazdani. She was jailed after calling for justice for her 20-year-old son, who was killed after being shot in protests last year. Photograph: Twitter
A mother in Iran, whose son was reportedly killed after being shot repeatedly at close range by security forces, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Iranian court after she demanded justice for her child on social media.

Mahsa Yazdani, whose 20-year-old son Mohammad Javad Zahedi was killed at an anti-regime protest in September 2022, was convicted on charges of blasphemy, incitement, insulting the supreme leader, and spreading anti-regime propaganda, according to human rights groups and family members. They say she will serve the first five years with no chance of parole.

Videos and photos of her son’s body riddled with shotgun pellets went viral on social media during the mass protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was arrested by Iran’s “morality police” for not wearing her hijab correctly. » | Deepa Parent | Thursday, November 2, 2023

Piers Morgan vs Mohammed Hijab on Palestine and Israel-Hamas War | The Full Debate

Oct 16, 2023 | Piers Morgan Uncensored is joined by YouTuber and pro-Palestinian Mohammed Hijab for a lively debate on the historic conflict between Israel and Palestine and whether the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas warrant the level of response by Israel and whether the IDF should be labelled as 'terrorists' too for the mass killing of civilians during the bombing of Gaza.

Mohammed makes the point that it is impossible to defend Israel's actions as 'defending themselves' when they are the occupiers of Palestinian territory. Mohammed also adds that 'flattening out' Gaza with carpet bombing is an irrational response to try and get rid of Hamas fighters when he believes they have the capabilities to go into Gaza and surgically remove and target them.

Iranian 16-year-old Girl in Coma after Being Assaulted by the Morality Police | DW News

Oct 4, 2023 | According to the Kurdish rights group "Hengaw" a teenage girl in Iran is in a coma after being assaulted by the morality police in Tehran's subway. It says Armita Garawand was attacked for violating the Islamic republic's hijab rules. Iranian authorities deny the claims.

'Gender Apartheid' in Iran: Hijab Laws, Protests & Revolution in 2023 | Explained

Sep 28, 2023 | The parliament in Iran has just passed new hijab laws that could see women jailed for up to 10 years for dressing inappropriately. These laws have been labelled "a form of gender apartheid" by UN experts and described as a "a despicable assault on the rights of women" by Amnesty International. …

Iran's Women a Year after Mahsa Amini's Death - BBC News

Sep 16, 2023 | One year on from Masha Amini's death, Iran’s protests may have subsided, but women have found new ways to defy the country’s regime.

Last year, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa after being detained by Iran’s morality police sparked unprecedented protests across the country. Today, several people in Tehran have described bold acts of rebellion that would have been almost unthinkable to Iranians this time last year.

But Iran’s regime is not backing down. A draft law, currently before parliament - the so-called Hijab and Chastity Bill, would impose new punishments on women who go unveiled.


Related.

It is so sad and tragic that this beautiful young Iranian lady has lost an eye whilst demonstrating for women’s rights to walk around in public without having to cover themselves in rags. Furthermore, it is incomprehensible that young women who attend school in France are fighting for their rights to cover themselves up with them. It really is a topsy-turvy world that we are now living in. – Mark

‘An Innocent and Ordinary Young Woman’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A year after Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody ignited fierce anti-government protests, her family reminisces about the young woman they called Jina.

A protest outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul last year after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police. | Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Her face has lit up a billboard in Times Square, and been painted on murals in Paris and Berlin. It has been splashed on the Barcelona soccer team’s private jet and commemorated on T-shirts with the red, white and green colors of Iran’s flag. Vienna and Los Angeles have even named streets after her.

At rallies across Iran and the world last year, tens of thousand of men and women waved placards with her face shouting, “Say her name: Mahsa Amini. Mahsa Amini.”

Saturday will mark one year since the 22-year-old woman from Saghez, a small city in a Kurdish province in northwest Iran, died in the custody of the country’s morality police on allegations of violating the hijab law, which mandates women and girls cover their hair and bodies.

Her death in Tehran ignited monthslong protests nationwide, led by women and girls who tossed off their head scarves in defiance and demanded the end to the Islamic Republic’s rule. The uprising bearing her name, the “Mahsa movement,” morphed into the most serious challenge to the legitimacy of Iran’s ruling clerics since they took power in 1979. » | Farnaz Fassihi | Saturday, September 16, 2023

Related article here.

Iran's Women a Year after Mahsa Amini's Death: 'I Wear What I Like Now'

Many women in Iran have permanently taken off their headscarf
BBC: A young woman walks down a street in Tehran, her hair uncovered, her jeans ripped, a bit of midriff exposed to the hot Iranian sun. An unmarried couple walk hand in hand. A woman holds her head high when asked by Iran's once-feared morality police to put a hijab on, and tells them: "Screw you!"

These acts of bold rebellion - described to me by several people in Tehran over the past month - would have been almost unthinkable to Iranians this time last year. But that was before the death in the morality police's custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been accused of not wearing her hijab [veil] properly.

The mass protests that shook Iran after her death subsided after a few months in the face of a brutal crackdown, but the anger that fuelled them has not been extinguished. Women have just had to find new ways to defy the regime.

A Western diplomat in Tehran estimates that across the country, an average of about 20% of women are now breaking the laws of the Islamic Republic by going out on to the streets without the veil.

…

"Society won't go back to the pre-Mahsa time," she believes. "In the streets, in the metro and in bazaars, men now admire women and praise their courage… Remarkably, even in some very religious cities like Qom, Mashhad and Isfahan, women no longer wear a headscarf." » | Caroline Hawley, BBC News | Friday, September 15, 2023

France to Ban Muslim Students* Wearing Abayas in State Schools - BBC News

Aug 28, 2023 | Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas - loose-fitting, full-length robes worn by some Muslim women - in France's state-run schools, the education minister has said.

The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September.

France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws. Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.


Verwandter Artikel auf Deutsch.

Schoolchildren are more usually and more correctly referred to as pupils rather than students. Is, perhaps, the word 'students' being used here by the BBC to obfuscate the issue?

In regard to the banning of abayas and hijabs, the French are right to ban these modes of dress for schoolchildren. In a good, well-functioning establishment dedicated to the education of children, difference should be minimised. This goes for children of different religious- as well as children of different socio-economic backgrounds. Children need to be well-socialised. Well-socialised children grow up to be well-socialised in the community, too. Fostering difference, by contrast, leads to disharmony and even strife in society.

Regarding the wearing of hijabs, abayas and other types of headscarves, headcoverings and body coverings, even for the strictest and most devout of Muslim families, they are totally unnecessary before puberty. One should always ask oneself WHY headcoverings and other such garments become mandatory for Muslim women. (Please note that I use here the word 'women' not 'girls'. A clear distinction should, and must, be made here.) It is because of hair and the figure having the potential to arouse and excite the senses. For this reason, it is customary in Islamic societies to insist on long, loose clothing and full head coverings in order to hide the potential cause of sexual arousal. In actual fact, the very word hijab means curtain! Therefore, the wearing of a hijab is tantamount to hiding one’s adornment, beautiful hair behind a curtain, as is the wearing of long, loose abayas. A pre-pubescent girl is not, and should not be, troubled by such matters, exactly because they are pre-pubescent. Therefore, in conclusion, anyone who insists on the wearing of a hijab or abaya in a school environment is quite possibly making a political, rather than a religious, statement. Even in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, when I was there, it was not customary to dress young girls up in such clothing. Children should be allowed to be children. It belongs to a healthy development in childhood. – © Mark Alexander

UN Urged to Intervene after Qur’an Burnings in Sweden and Denmark

THE GUARDIAN: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation representing 57 states calls for appointment of special rapporteur on Islamophobia

People hold copies of the Qur’an during a protest outside the Swedish consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has strongly condemned recent Qur’an burnings in Sweden and Denmark as “despicable acts of aggression” and called on intervention by the United Nations amid a growing diplomatic crisis.

A special session of the body of foreign ministers met virtually on Monday, on the same day as a further protest involving the desecration of the Muslim holy book took place outside the Swedish parliament.

In a 35-point action plan, the OIC, which represents 57 states, called on the UN secretary general to appoint a special rapporteur on combating Islamophobia and urged all governments to fully implement existing law or adopt new legislation if needed, citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. » | M iranda Bryant in Stockholm | Tuesday, August 1, 2023

This is nonsense! There is clearly a linguistic misunderstanding here. A phobia is not a HATRED of, but a FEAR of something. The word derives from the Greek Φόβος which itself derives from the mythological Greek god Phobos, who had a special talent to be able to inspire fear and panic in others. How can one legislate against people’s fears? It simply CANNOT be done. No more than any government or authority can introduce legislation to make people love something or somebody.

It should be obvious to all by now that Islamophobia is a problem, and a growing one; but tackling it lies not in Western legislation; rather, the solution lies in changing legislation in Islamic countries.

Westerners have every reason to be fearful of Islam and its growth here in Western countries. They see on their TV screens, on the Internet, and they read in their newspapers the atrocious treatment that Islamic governments mete out to their citizens for relatively trivial misdemeanours, and often to people who, in our eyes, commit no crime whatsoever.

If the UN wants to eliminate Islamophobia—and I am certain that they do (and should)—the Organisation needs to start piling pressure on countries governed by Islamic law—Shar’iah law—not on Western governments. The UN needs to work towards Islamic governments respecting UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS. Most of them do not respect human rights. There are so many examples that could be cited; but here are just a few: the brutal treatment in Iran of women not wearing, or wishing to wear, the hijab; people being put to death in many Muslim-majority countries simply for being homosexual, a nature and predisposition most gays can do absolutely NOTHING about – they are simply born with this proclivity; and so many Muslims are jailed (and brutally treated whilst incarcerated) as ‘political prisoners simply for having different viewpoints than the government’s. Need I go on?

Then there is the problem with Islam itself. It is the indisputable belief of all devout Muslims that Islam will one day conquer the whole world. In their view, the whole wide world belongs to Allah; so, it must be Islamized for Him. The sooner, the better. Well-informed Westerners know this, so is there any wonder that Islamophobia is growing here in the Western world?

If the UN, if Islamic governments, and if Muslims want to combat this growing problem, they need to look East not West! Their behaviour needs to be modified, their laws need to be changed or modified, so that our fears can be eradicated. Ergo, the solution to this thorny problem lies not in the Occident, but in the Orient. – © Mark Alexander

Daughter of a German Citizen Sentenced to Death in Iran Speaks Out | DW News

Jul 17, 2023 | Authorities in Iran have announced a new campaign to enforce the wearing of headscarves, or hijabs. Wearing the hijab is mandatory under Iran's theocratic regime. Enforcement falls to the notorious morality police, which had largely withdrawn from public view after protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in its custody. Anti-regime protests that followed saw over 500 people killed and nearly 20-thousand arrested.

The daughter of a German citizen facing a death sentence in Iran fears she may have spoken to her father for the last time. Authorities allowed a phone call after previously prohibiting contact for two years.

Jamshid Sharmahd's family says he was kidnapped by Iranian intelligence in Dubai three years ago and brought to Iran. He previously lived in the United States, where he was involved in an exile opposition group. Sharmahd was accused of planning an attack on a mosque and sentenced to death. His family and rights groups reject the charges.


Verwandt.

Scheitert das Regime am Kopftuch?: Teheran schickt die Sittenpolizei zurück auf die Straße und offenbart damit die eigene Schwäche. Denn die Botschaft, die von den Frauen ohne Kopftuch ausging, ist kaum mehr einzufangen. »

Attackers Cut Ponytails from Iranian 10-year-old Girls Who Refuse to Wear Hijab

THE TELEGRAPH: Youngsters threatened with ‘big knife’ by unknown assailants, as police demand daughters should not ‘defy our religious values’

Iranian girls are having their hair hacked off by unknown assailants, in what police suggested could be punishment for refusing to wear the hijab.

Girls as young as 10 have had their ponytails chopped off by assailants who threatened them with a “big knife”. The hijab is mandatory from the age of seven in Iran.

The attacks are being carried out by someone who stops girls while driving a car around the streets of Damavand province, according to Arman Melli Online, an Iranian news website.

He is said to move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and reportedly has been carrying bags filled with hair braids, some of them in multiple colours.

A spokesman for Tehran’s police chief, Babak Namakshenas, said the attacks were “the result of ignoring the Islamic social codes”. » | Ahmed Vahdat | Thursday, July 6, 2023

I spent many years working in the Middle East in years gone by. When I worked in Saudi Arabia, girls as young as ten were not required to wear hijab at all. I was informed on good authority, by a knowledgeable Saudi, that girls were only required to wear hijab upon reaching the age of puberty. Before that, there is no requirement for them to wear it. However, at puberty, the wearing of hijab becomes mandatory. So why are the Iranian authorities insisting that Iranian children wear hijab? Prior to puberty, a girl is but a child. When I worked in Saudi, I often saw little girls playing with each other with the wind blowing through their hair. It seems to me that the Iranians might perhaps have a distorted understanding of the strictures of Islam. – © Mark Alexander

A Fatal Shooting and a Hijab Ban: Two Faces of France’s Racial Divisions

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The almost simultaneous police killing of Nahel M. and a ban on head scarves in soccer were coincidental, but they illuminate France’s crisis of identity and inclusion.

The killing of Nahel M. last week ignited protests and riots over accusations of police brutality and racial profiling. | Abdulmonam Eassa/Getty Images
Mama Diakité is a French citizen, raised in the suburbs of Paris by two immigrant parents, not far from where a 17-year-old boy was shot by the police during a traffic stop last week.

As cars burned and barricades went up in her neighborhood over the shooting, she got word from the country’s top administrative court that she could not play the most popular sport in France — soccer — while wearing her hijab. On Thursday, the Conseil d’Etat upheld the French Football Federation’s ban on wearing any obvious religious symbols, in keeping with the country’s bedrock principle of laïcité, or secularism.

The decision inspired a storm of feelings in Ms. Diakité — shock, anger, disappointment. “I feel betrayed by the country, which is supposed be the country of the rights of man,” said Ms. Diakité, 25, who stopped playing soccer on a club team this past season because of the rule. “I don’t feel safe because they don’t accept who I am.”

The timing of the ruling and of the unrest after the death of the young man, identified as Nahel M., was purely coincidental, and in many ways, the cases are different. One involved a fatal traffic stop that French officials have condemned; the other involved a charged debate on the visibility of Islam in French society. But both touch upon long-simmering issues of identity and inclusion in France. » | Catherine Porter, Reporting from Paris | Sunday, July 2, 2023

US Condemns Iran for Hanging Anti-government Protesters - BBC News

Jan 8, 2023 | Two men have been hanged in Iran for killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests against the government last year. Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini had appealed against their sentences, saying they had been tortured into making false confessions.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the executions were "abhorrent". The total number of protesters known to have been executed in the aftermath of the unrest is now four.

Demonstrations against the clerical establishment erupted in September following the death in custody of a woman detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, "improperly".

Iran Carries Out First Known Execution over Protests | DW News

Dec 9, 2022 | Iran has announced the first execution of a protester, who was convicted of injuring a member of the security forces. Twenty-three-year-old Mohsen Shekari was hanged in Tehran after what human rights groups condemned as a sham trial.

Iran has seen mass anti-regime protests since the death of a young Kurdish woman, the 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini, in the custody of "morality police," who had arrested her for allegedly not wearing the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, appropriately.

According to human rights organizations, about 18,000 protesters have been arrested so far. At least 11 of them have been convicted of "war against God."


Related BBC video here.

AU LIRE :

En Iran, un premier manifestant de 23 ans exécuté, des dizaines d’autres condamnés risquent la mort : Selon Amnesty International, vingt-huit personnes dont trois mineurs, arrêtées depuis le début de la contestation iranienne, risquent le même sort. »

326 Dead, 12,500 Arrested: Why Iran's Regime Still Can't Stifle the Protests | DW News

Nov 18, 2022 | Iranians have been in the streets for two months in protests led by women united by the protest slogan, "Freedom, women, life." The initial catalyst for the movement was the September 16 death of a student, Jina Mahsa Amini, at the hands of morality police ostensibly offended by her ill-fitted hijab. …

Keep burning those mediæval rags! Liberate yourselves! – © Mark