Iran hijab protester sentenced to year in jail — Lawyer

TEHRAN: Awomanwhoprotested against Iran’s compulsory hijab law by removing the Islamic veil in public last year has been sentenced to one year in prison, her lawyer said.

Vida Movahedi was arrested in October after removing her hijab from her head at Tehran’s Enghelab Square, Payam Derafshan told AFP, confirming his earlier comments to state news agency IRNA.

Movahedi, in her mid- 20s, was charged with ‘encouraging corruption and debauchery’ and sentenced by a court in Tehran to one year in prison on March 2, Derafshan added.

The lawyer said Movahedi had stated her opposition to the ‘compulsory hijab’ and that she wanted to express her opinion in ‘a civil protest’.

In December 2017, she stood on a pillar box on Enghelab Avenue without the mandatory long coat and raised her white veil on a stick, an act that was copied by women in different cities. Enghelab means revolution in Farsi and the square and avenue are among the busiest areas in the capital.

Movahedi’s move sparked similar protests by other women, including some at the same spot, and they soon won recognition as ‘ Dokhtaran- e enghelab’, or the Girls of Revolution Street. — AFP