Teenage Girls in Shiraz Took to the Streets Without Mandatory Hijab; Five Arrested
Hours after a video was released showing a recreational gathering of teenage girls and boys on one of Shiraz’s main streets, the city’s governor announced that police had arrested ten people in connection with the event.
The video in question, which was posted on social media on Thursday, the 2nd of Tir, showed a number of teenage girls and boys walking on Shahid Chamran Boulevard in Shiraz, with most of the girls in the gathering refraining from wearing mandatory hijab.
Mehr News Agency reported Thursday evening, citing Lotfollah Sheibani, the governor of Shiraz, that “ten people involved in organizing this gathering have been arrested so far.”
Sheibani stated: “As soon as we became aware of this matter, in coordination with the judiciary and law enforcement, we took necessary measures to identify those responsible for organizing the event.”
However, an hour later, Fars News Agency, citing the chief prosecutor of Fars Province, wrote that only “five of the main organizers, all of whom were the organizers of this event, were arrested after identification, and none of the teenagers who participated in this event are in detention.”
According to Shiraz’s governor, the actions of the teenagers shown in the video were “pre-planned” and they “have other plans for the future.”
The Shiraz governor, referring to the arrest of some of these teenagers and young people, said: “Including that their leader [was] also identified at the same event and based on judicial authorities, measures were taken to arrest him.”
Mandatory hijab has become one of Iran’s social and political challenges, pitting many women, girls, and families who do not believe in it against the Islamic Republic government.
To combat what it calls “improper hijab,” the Iranian government has deployed guidance patrols on streets and in city squares for years, with these patrols’ sometimes violent confrontations with women and girls frequently making headlines.
However, after years, the conservative hardline newspaper Resalat admitted to the failure of the guidance patrol project, writing that “the guidance patrol not only failed to preserve hijab, but has also sown the seeds of hatred and enmity among segments of society.”
Participants in the gathering of 90s generation teens in Shiraz, all of whom were born years after the 1979 Revolution, and according to Fars News Agency “their average age is no more than 15 or 16 years old,” attend schools that are run under the supervision of the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Education.
Source: Radio Farda
