Souri Babaei, Civil Activist Protesting Mandatory Hijab, Arrested
Souri Babaei Chegini, a civil activist protesting mandatory hijab, was arrested on the evening of Wednesday, July 13, in Qazvin.
According to social media reports citing Mohammadreza Moradbehrouzi, Ms. Babaei’s husband, eight officers, two of whom were women, raided the home of Ms. Babaei’s brother, arrested her, confiscated her and her children’s mobile phones, and threatened her 13-year-old daughter.
Ms. Babaei had posted a video of herself on social media on July 12 in support of the “Hijab Without Hijab” campaign and “No to Mandatory Hijab.”
In this video, she stated that accepting the headscarf as a covering is a stamp of approval for all “injustices” in “anti-women Islamic laws.”
Among these laws, she referenced “women’s diya being half that of men, daughters’ inheritance rights compared to sons, child custody rights, divorce rights, the right to choose clothing, and the inability of Iranian women to travel to other countries without the consent of a male lawyer, as well as the right of Muslim men to marry four women formally and engage in temporary marriages with an unlimited number of women.”
She subsequently removed her headscarf in protest against all these “humiliations” and called on Iranian men to support campaigns protesting mandatory hijab.
Ms. Babaei had previously been summoned to the prosecutor’s office due to her civil activities, particularly regarding mandatory hijab.
Her husband was previously convicted in absentia of “insulting the leadership” to one year in prison and of “spreading falsehoods with intent to disturb public opinion” to pay a fine of 10 million tomans.
In recent days, particularly on July 21, which is designated as “Hijab and Chastity Day” in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s calendar, a significant number of Iranian women have protested mandatory hijab in Iran by posting videos of themselves appearing without hijab in social settings.
In recent weeks and months, a new wave of stricter enforcement regarding the dress code of citizens, particularly women, in Iran has begun.
Source: Radio Farda
