Iran steps up hijab arrests
Videos show women being dragged from the streets
Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say the country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.
A new campaign called Noor (Persian for “light”) to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel. The hijab rules dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.
Hours later, videos of women and girls being forcefully arrested by agents of the notorious Gashte-Irshad (morality police) flooded social media, along with stories of beatings and assault. The videos were verified by human rights groups.
One mother and daughter walking through a busy Tehran square were surrounded by five chador-clad female agents and two male agents, who hurled insults and accusations before they grabbed the women. When the women resisted arrest they were violently dragged into a van, a source close to the family said.
Dina Ghalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, was among the first to tweet about a confrontation. On her now suspended X account, she said: “Yesterday in the police room of Sadeghiyeh metro station, I insisted that I had the right to use the metro as a citizen and a taxpayer. But then, they violently dragged me into a room and Tasered me. They handcuffed me and one of the officers sexually assaulted me.”
A day after her post, she was reportedly arrested and transferred to the notorious Evin prison. The state judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced that Ghalibaf would face legal action and rejected her allegations of sexual assault.
However, the jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi wrote a message – published by relatives on Instagram – about Ghalibaf ’s visible bruises. In the post, she urged Iranian women to share their stories of arrest and sexual assault at the hands of the security forces.
Meanwhile, popular rapper Toomaj Salehi was yesterday sentenced to death for supporting the protests sparked by the death in custody of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, local media reported. Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations.
The Guardian spoke to the families of two women who were arrested last week and three women who were arrested by the Gasht-e-Irshad.
One young woman from Tehran said: “Around eight agents surrounded me on Saturday and started screaming at me. They hurl insults like ‘whore’, ‘naked Americaloving slut’ – all while kicking me in the legs, stomach and everywhere. They don’t care where they hit you.”
Another said: “Both women and men touch our bodies during arrests. They say they’re religious and loyal Muslims, but don’t care if the male agents touch our bodies.”
She added that at the detention centre she saw about 40 women. After more than five hours there, during which they were subjected to insults and beatings, some of the women were released. The Guardian has seen pictures of at least two women who showed signs of violent attacks, which they say occurred during their detention last week.
Since nationwide protests gripped Iran after Amini’s death, independent human rights organisations and the UN fact-finding mission on Iran have investigated cases of rape and sexual assault of protesters, and concluded that the Iranian regime committed crimes against humanity.
Shabnam, a student, said: "In and around Valiasr Square there’s always police present. It’s not just morality police or hijab bans – even the traffic police have joined hands in making our lives hell. They stop motorcycles, cars, taxis – wherever they find women … without a hijab.”
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-US journalist, has launched United Against Gender Apartheid, a campaign in collaboration with Iranian and Afghan activists to urge the international community to codify gender apartheid. “I want the free world to hear the tragic stories of women who experienced gender discrimination … in a united movement,” she said.
Kosar Eftekhari, a 24-year-old artist was blinded by the security forces during protests. “The Islamic Republic took my eyesight simply for being unveiled,” she said, urging world leaders to classify the Islamic Republic as a gender apartheid regime.
An Iranian student said: “We are not going anywhere. There’s no wearing of hijab or following the rules of this regime. We boycotted the elections and we won’t stop.”