During headscarf checks
UN: Iran’s moral watchdogs arrest scores of women
April 26, 2024, 1:27 p.m
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After the 2022 protests, media interest in the situation of women in Iran is noticeably decreasing. However, their situation is not improving, on the contrary. After the moral watchdogs recently announced stricter controls on the requirement to wear a headscarf, they are now taking tough action.
According to information from the UN Human Rights Office, numerous girls and women have been arrested in Iran as a result of stricter headscarf controls. The Geneva office said hundreds of companies were closed because they did not implement strict headscarf controls. The notorious moral watchdogs announced stricter controls a few weeks ago. Since the protests in autumn 2022, more and more women had ignored the requirement to wear a headscarf.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, criticized a planned law that would provide for ten-year prison sentences and flogging as punishment for violating headscarf regulations. He called on the government in Tehran to eliminate all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence.
Türk also criticized the death sentence against rapper Tumaj Salehi. The 33-year-old was one of the prominent critics during the mass demonstrations against the Islamic Republic system in autumn 2022. He denounced social and political injustices in the country in his songs. According to the UN human rights office, nine men have already been executed in connection with the protests.
They began after the death of the Iranian Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Amini was arrested by moral watchdogs because of an allegedly ill-fitting headscarf and died in police custody.