WORLD, PAGE 16:

Iranian women protest Islamic dress code by removing hijabs

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian woman who removed her headscarf in public to protest the theocracy’s Islamic dress code apparently has sparked a bold trend in Tehran, the capital.

Several images appeared on social media Monday purporting to show women standing atop benches and telephone utility boxes and waving hijabs just like the iconic demonstrator who was arrested last month.

At least one of the demonstrators and a person photographing her were arrested, according to witnesses.

A burgeoning movement is challenging the compulsory hjiab law, which requires women to cover their hair in public. It is part of a raft of social codes instituted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that reform-minded Iranian women say are outmoded and infringe on freedom of choice.

Critics of the law had been wearing white clothing on Wednesdays for months before a dark-haired, sneakerwearing woman stood in Tehran’s bustling Enghelab Square in late December and waved her white hijab on the end of a stick.

She was arrested, and she became one of the icons of the anti-government protests that would sweep Iran a few days later. A social media campaign dubbed #WhereIsShe sprang up to demand information about her fate.

But her identity was not publicly known until days ago, when human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said she had been told by a court that handles alleged cultural offenses that the woman was released from custody.

Sotoudeh identified the woman as Vida Movahedi, a 31-year-old mother of a 20-month-old child. It was not immediately clear whether Movahedi had been charged with a crime. Iran’s statecontrolled news media have not covered the story.

On Monday, with parts of Tehran still covered in the remnants of a weekend snowfall, several women were photographed mimicking her protest.