Amid Protests Over Cleric's Filming of 'Qom Mother'; Ansieh Khazali in New York: Hijab is a Accepted Cultural Issue in Iran

Amid protests over the release of footage showing a cleric filming a young woman without mandatory hijab in a medical center in Qom, the Deputy for Women's Affairs of Ebrahim Raisi, who is in New York, claimed during a meeting with the Finnish Minister of Social Security that 'hijab in Iran is a cultural and accepted issue.' According to the state news agency IRNA, during this meeting held at the United Nations headquarters, the Deputy of the thirteenth government of the Islamic Republic responded to the Finnish minister's concerns regarding hijab by stating: 'Hijab in our country is a cultural and accepted issue, and we believe that boundaries must be taken seriously to protect women against violence. We have established women's security in Iran seriously by viewing hijab as a preventive issue.' Ansieh Khazali also described the Islamic Republic as committed to promoting 'gender justice' aimed at improving the status of women and families, adding: 'We believe in gender justice that goes beyond gender equality; therefore, today in Iran, special privileges have been granted to women, especially pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, in laws and implementation to ensure the development and advancement of women and improve their families' conditions.' Ms. Sanni Gran-Lassonen also considered the advancement of women and the improvement of human rights as serious matters in her country, emphasizing that ensuring gender equality for women is the focus of all Finnish government programs. Ansieh Khazali, Deputy for Women and Family Affairs of Ebrahim Raisi, arrived in New York on Sunday, March 11, to participate in the UN Commission on the Status of Women; this is while the Islamic Republic was expelled from this commission in late December 2022 following the suppression of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement. Khazali's trip to the U.S. and her presence at the United Nations comes as the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding committee condemned 'institutional discrimination against women and girls' in Iran in its first report, considering it a 'violation of human rights and a crime against humanity.' Reactions to the release of footage showing a cleric secretly filming a young woman holding her newborn without mandatory hijab have sparked a new wave on social media, with the hashtag 'We are Slutty' gaining traction in support of this mother. The incident of a cleric filming a mother while she was caring for her newborn and causing her distress, which was met with protests from the woman and others present in the clinic, is turning into a social crisis; an event that occurs in another clinic in a different city within less than 48 hours, with state media attempting to attribute these incidents to foreign factors and crack down on protesting citizens. The trip of Ebrahim Raisi's Deputy for Women's Affairs to New York for a speech at the UN Commission on the Status of Women is notable, especially as reports indicate that requests for divorce by women are five times that of men in local statistics. The Deputy of Ebrahim Raisi described herself as a 'concerned advocate for Western women,' stating that it is their duty to 'raise awareness.'