Iran’s judiciary chief has threatened to punish women “without mercy” if they go in public without the Sharia-mandated hijab or veil.
Iran top Sharia enforcer, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, issued the stern warning after months of nationwide protests that began last September following the death of 22-year-old woman, Mashan Amini, in the custody of Iran’s Islamic Morality Police. She was arrested and beaten by the regime-appointed Sharia enforcers for wearing her hijab “improperly.”
Mohseni-Eje knows what persecution “without mercy” means. As Iran’s Prosecutor General he oversaw the deadly crackdown of the pro-democracy uprising triggered by the flawed 2009 Iranian presidential election. Between 2005-2009, he also served as the Minister of Intelligence under notorious Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Not complying with hijab could result in serious punishment in Iran. In December, a Tehran court sentenced a woman for 10 years in prison for removing her headscarf. The 25-year-old women was charged with “encouraging corruption and prostitution” for taking off her hijab and swinging it above her head in an act of protest against the regime’s hijab law.
Sky News UK reported the Iranian judiciary chief’s warning:
Women will be prosecuted “without mercy” if they are seen in public without a veil, Iran’s judiciary chief has warned.Following protests in recent months, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Saturday: “Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with [our] values.”Those who commit such anomalous acts will be punished and will be prosecuted without mercy.”He did not specify what the punishment would be, but violations of state laws on hijabs have seen people face arrest, fines, imprisonment and even the death sentence.
Top Sharia enforcer Mohseni-Eje received backing from Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who on Saturday reiterated that wearing hijab was not a matter of personal choice for a woman, but a “legal requirement” in the Shia-Islamic Republic.
The remarks come amid reports of pro-regime thugs taking law into their own hands to enforce the hijab law on the streets. The Jerusalem Post reported:
President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the hijab was the law in Iran after a viral video showed a man throwing yogurt at two unveiled women in a shop near a holy Shi’ite Muslim city. (…)Judicial authorities in a town near the northeastern city of Mashhad issued arrest warrants for the man seen pouring yogurt over the heads of the two women, a mother and her daughter. They were also the subject of arrest warrants for flouting Iran’s strict female dress rules, state media reported.Risking arrest for defying the obligatory dress code, women are still widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets around the country. Videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police have flooded social media. (…)In live remarks on state television, Raisi said: “If some people say they don’t believe (in the hijab)… it’s good to use persuasion … But the important point is that there is a legal requirement … and the hijab is today a legal matter.”
Hundreds of Iranians were killed and at least 15,000 were arrested as the regime clamped down on anti-hijab protests that turned into a nationwide uprising, with protesters calling for an end of the Islamic regime and death to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
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