Roya Heshmati: I won't wear a headscarf, put your Quran under your arm and slap yourself.

Roya Heshmati from Sanandaj told the person who was in charge of carrying out her flogging sentence, "I will not wear my headscarf. Put your Quran under your arm and flog me."

Roya Heshmati, a Kurdish citizen from Sanandaj living in Tehran, was sentenced by the judiciary to one year of imprisonment, 74 lashes, and a three-year ban on leaving the country for not observing the mandatory hijab on Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran. After the sentence was carried out, she published an article about the execution of the sentence and her refusal to surrender to oppression.

She wrote on social media: "This morning, I was called by the execution of sentences to carry out the sentence of 74 lashes. I called my lawyer and we went to the District 7 Prosecutor's Office together. We passed through the entrance gate and I took off my hijab and went to Branch 1 of the Execution of Sentences. The branch employee said: Put your headscarf on so that there is no trouble. I said I came to whip me for this headscarf, I will not do it."

They called and the execution officer came up and said: "Put your hijab on and follow me." I said I won't. He said: "Then why won't you? I'll spank you so that you know where you are. I'll open a new case for you so that you can be our guest for another 74 strokes." I still didn't. We went downstairs and he repeated firmly: "Didn't I tell you to put your head on?" I didn't, two women in a veil came and pulled the headscarf over my head and I took it off again and this was repeated several times. They handcuffed me from behind and pulled the headscarf over my head and we went downstairs to the ground floor.

There was a room at the end of the parking lot. The judge, the executioner, and the woman in a veil were standing next to me. The woman was sighing and saying, "I know, I know." The judge laughed in the room, which reminded me of a blind owl, and I turned my face away from him. They opened the iron door, the walls of the room were concrete, and there was a bed at the end of the room, with handcuffs and iron shackles on either side of the bed. An iron device resembling a canvas stand was a little further away. It was a medieval torture chamber.

The judge asked: "Madam, are you okay? Are you okay?" I answered as if there was nothing wrong. He said: "Madam, I am with you." Again, I did not answer. The executioner said: "Take off your coat." I hung my coat and scarf from the torture rack. He said: "Take off your scarf." I said, "No, put the Quran under your arm and beat me." The woman came and said: "Please don't be stubborn," and pulled the scarf over her head. The judge said: "Don't beat me too hard." The man started whipping my shoulders, my back, my buttocks, my thighs, my calves, and started again. I didn't count the number of blows, I just chanted under my breath, "In the name of woman, in the name of life, the garment of slavery is torn, our black night will dawn, all the whips will be axed."

The flogging was over and we came out. I didn't let them think I was even hurt, they were more despicable than this. We went upstairs to the judge executing the sentence and I took off my headscarf again. The woman with me said, "Please take off your head," and I didn't, and she put the headscarf back on my head.

The judge said: "We ourselves are not happy about this case, but it is a ruling and it must be implemented." I did not answer him. He said: "If you want to live differently, you can be abroad." I said this country is for everyone.

"He said, 'Yes, but the law must be respected.' I said, 'Let the law do its job, we will continue our resistance.' We came out of the room and I took off my headscarf again."

The above story is the story of a brave Kurdish woman who not only did not surrender to the whips of the Islamic Republic, but also stood up and, while being whipped, recited a poem of victory, declaring that she would continue her resistance. It is such resistance that has shaken the foundations of the Islamic Republic regime and is collapsing.

According to international human rights documents, flogging is an inhuman, cruel, and degrading punishment, and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits the implementation of such punishments. However, the Islamic Republic's judicial system, regardless of these documents and obligations, always considers flogging as a punishment and in many cases implements this punishment without exception.