70 Female Documentarians Call for an End to Violent Treatment of 'Girls of Revolution Street'

Seventy Iranian female documentarians have expressed their outrage in an open letter regarding the 'violent' and 'inhumane' treatment by law enforcement officials towards women protesting against mandatory hijab. They stated that they are 'angry' and 'hurt' by such actions. In their letter addressed to the heads of the three branches of government and members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, they emphasized that neither law nor religion grants authorities the right to respond to women who peacefully oppose the 'mandatory hijab,' which they deem 'unjust,' with 'beatings, insults, and unfounded accusations.' The documentarians pointed out that at a time when the necessity of covering one's hair is not unanimously agreed upon by religious scholars, and many consider the enforcement of such a requirement 'contrary to Islamic teachings,' such 'violent and uncivil' behaviors against the 'peaceful and nonviolent protests of the Girls of Revolution Street' will primarily undermine your credibility on both domestic and international stages. The signatories of this letter mentioned incidents where some protesting girls were thrown from platforms in the streets, resulting in 'broken limbs' and being 'beaten in secrecy and detained,' urging officials to tolerate 'civil and peaceful' dissent. The release of a video showing a police officer's interaction with Maryam Shariati, who was thrown from a telecommunications box to the ground, has intensified scrutiny over the treatment of the Girls of Revolution and brought protests against violent actions towards demonstrators to social media. Additionally, some social media users and an eyewitness reported a severe confrontation between a passerby with a 'religious appearance' and a protesting girl named 'Hamraz Sadeghi,' which led to her arm being broken and her detention after she removed her hijab at the intersection of Somayeh and Sepahbod Gharani in Tehran on Saturday. Nevertheless, Salman Samani, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, stated after the video of the police officer's interaction with Ms. Shariati was released that 'the police, as judicial agents, have the duty to deal with observable crimes.' In the open letter, the heads of the three branches of government and members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly are referred to as 'committed to executing and overseeing the proper implementation of the law,' and they were reminded that 'history will also record these social events.' Among the signatories of this open letter are Pegah Ahangarani, Mina Akbari, Mahnaz Afzali, Mahnaz Mohammadi, Azadeh Aryamanesh, Leila Naghdipari, and Sepideh Abtahi. On February 4, the police announced in a statement that 'the law provides for up to two months of imprisonment for being in public without a hijab.' The statement also indicated that 'encouraging people to be without a hijab falls under the second clause of Article 639 of the Islamic Penal Code, which carries a prison sentence of one to ten years and cannot be converted to an alternative punishment.' The provisions of the Islamic Penal Code cited by the police pertain to 'encouraging corruption and prostitution,' and there is no mention of 'encouraging the absence of hijab' in this law. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesperson for the judiciary, also responded to a journalist's question regarding the ten-year prison sentence for the 'Girls of Revolution Street,' stating that 'the determination of the crime associated with the accused's actions is the judge's responsibility, and it must be seen what the investigator or judge thinks in this regard.' The protest against mandatory hijab, which began with women removing their hijabs and has become known as the 'Girls of Revolution Street,' started a few days before the protests in December. So far, dozens of women in Tehran and other cities in Iran have shown their opposition to mandatory hijab by removing their headscarves in public spaces. Several protesting women have been detained in the streets, and reports indicate that some of them were injured before their arrests due to the police's violent actions.