Khamenei’s Sharp Response to Mandatory Hijab Protests on International Women’s Day: ‘They Have Been Deceived’
The leader of the Islamic Republic, precisely on International Women’s Day which is celebrated in most countries, made his first response to symbolic protests by some women against mandatory hijab, calling the protesting women “deceived” and describing the results of their efforts as “trivial”.
The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran said Thursday in a gathering of eulogists that they spent so much money, effort, and propaganda only for a few girls to be deceived and remove their headscarves in corners, and all their efforts culminated in this small and trivial result. He said this is not the issue, but what concerns him is the raising of the mandatory hijab issue by some elites.
He implicitly called for dealing with symbolic protesters and said: What is done in the street and in public is actually public work and education, and it creates an obligation for the system that emerged from Islam.
Khamenei’s remarks coincided with the announcement of the sentencing of one of the women who protested mandatory hijab. On Thursday, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the prosecutor of Tehran, announced a two-year prison sentence for one of the women who, in protest of mandatory hijab, removed her headscarf on Enqelab Street in Tehran. He did not mention the name of this woman, but this is the first sentence for symbolic protesters against mandatory hijab.
In December of this year, a young woman named Vida Movahed, standing on a platform at the intersection of Enqelab and Vasal streets, held her headscarf on a stick. Although she was arrested, dozens of young girls in Tehran and other cities imitated her.
Most of these women were arrested and later released on bail.
The United States has criticized Iran’s treatment of women protesting mandatory hijab in several successive statements.
In recent weeks, dozens of newspapers in America, written by analysts and political and human rights activists, have supported the actions of these Iranian women.
Twenty-one months of a two-year prison sentence for one of the protesting women is suspended, and she must serve five months in prison, but the Tehran prosecutor says he objects to this sentence.
Some religious sources and political figures in recent weeks have stood with the protesting women and say that based on Islam, there is no mandatory hijab.
Source: Voice of America
