Amnesty International Tells Islamic Republic Authorities: Protesting Mandatory Hijab Is Not a Crime
Amnesty International has issued a statement calling on Islamic Republic authorities to end harassment, arrests, and imprisonment of those protesting mandatory hijab and to immediately release women who have been detained or convicted for this reason.
“Amnesty International” has issued a statement referring to the arrest and conviction of three activists protesting mandatory hijab, calling for the release of women who are imprisoned or face imminent imprisonment for opposing mandatory hijab.
Amnesty International writes that Iran’s security services and intelligence agencies have threatened many women’s rights defenders by phone and warned them they will be arrested if they protest the hijab. Some of these activists have also been summoned and interrogated.
Magdalena Mughrabi, Director of the Middle East and North Africa section at Amnesty International, says: “The behavior of Islamic Republic authorities is a reaction to the growing resistance among Iranian women who are working through civil movements to change discriminatory laws.”
Ms. Mughrabi reminds that criminalizing protest against mandatory hijab as a manifestation of gender discrimination is a cruel, inhumane, and degrading act toward women’s dignity: “Islamic Republic authorities should immediately release activists who have engaged in civil protest instead of pursuing and detaining them.”
Handing Out Flowers in the Metro
A week has passed since the arrest of Yasmin Aryani and her mother Menereh Arabshahi. Yasmin Aryani’s lawyer says the young woman was arrested at home on April 10 and her whereabouts are unknown. Menereh Arabshahi was also arrested a day later when she went to the Vara Detention Center to follow up on her daughter’s condition.
The mother and daughter distributed flowers among metro passengers on International Women’s Day and spoke about women’s rights. Their arrest was based on a video recording of this act on social media. In the video, Menereh Arabshahi expresses hope for a day when no woman is forced to fight for her rights. Yasmin Aryani hands out bouquets to passengers and expresses hope that one day all women, with or without hijab, will stand together on the streets.
Amnesty International writes that Yasmin Aryani and her mother have been accused of “propaganda against the system” and “spreading corruption and obscenity.”
Yasmin Aryani has been allowed only one phone call with her family. In that conversation, she said her accuser is the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office. She is a theater actress and openly participates in the “White Wednesdays” campaign against mandatory hijab.
Menereh Arabshahi has also been transferred to Qarchak Prison (Shahr-e Rey Prison), which houses hundreds of other women in unsanitary conditions and is known for contaminated water, unhealthy food, and shortages of medicine and medical care.
Conviction of Vida Mohamadi
Amnesty International has called in its statement for the overturning of Vida Mohamadi’s prison sentence. Vida Mohamadi’s lawyer announced on April 14 that she has been sentenced to one year in prison.
Ms. Mohamadi was the first woman to wrap her headscarf around a stick during the December 2016 protests and stand on a platform on Revolution Street. For this reason, she became known as “the girl of Revolution Street.” Her action was repeated by other protesters multiple times.
She was arrested and released once in 2017, but according to her lawyer, the recent one-year sentence is due to repeating this action in autumn 2018. This time, Vida Mohamadi took several colorful balloons above the turquoise dome of Revolution Square.
Source: DW
