Isfahan Friday Prayer Leader: Publication of Hijabless Photos Dried Up Zayandeh Rud

The Friday prayer leader of Isfahan attributed the publication of "hijabless photos" of women as the cause of the drying up of the "Zayandeh Rud" river, stating that if this continues, the upstream of the river will also dry up. According to ISNA news agency, Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad said during the Friday prayer ceremony on June 9, "Photos have reached my office showing women taking pictures next to the dry Zayandeh Rud like in Europe. If you continue these actions, the river will dry up, and its upstream will also dry up." He criticized social media platforms that, according to him, "invite people to remove their hijab" and said, "I tell the Ministry of Communications and Telecommunications that if you can, confront the leaders of networks that promote immorality; if you do not do this, you have not fulfilled your mission." The Isfahan Friday prayer leader emphasized that "telecommunications can find these individuals and silence them." This conservative cleric criticized Hezbollah forces for not showing "sensitivity" to such phenomena in society, stating that not arresting these women is a form of "betrayal." Mr. Tabatabai-Nejad also criticized the people and Hezbollah forces for their indifference to the issue of "dog walking" in society, while addressing these forces, he asked why they do not show sensitivity towards a hijabless female driver. He added, "Sometimes in a food shop, a hijabless woman works alongside a man; the licenses of such shops should be revoked." This member of the Assembly of Experts spoke about the ineffectiveness of the "cultural revolution" in Iran, adding, "We have not acted correctly in the cultural revolution; in recent years, we have not even been able to segregate universities by gender. What kind of cultural revolution is this that has not accomplished anything substantial?" Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad is one of the most well-known hardline clerics in the Islamic Republic, who has adopted harsh positions and speeches against the modern lifestyle of the Iranian people for years. On November 18 last year, he also stated that women's activities in shops, offices, and companies should be "prohibited" and that girls studying in industrial and mining fields is "against Islamic law." The Isfahan Friday prayer leader had also said in 2014 that "the issue of hijab has gone beyond mere admonition, and to combat bad hijab, we must raise the stick and use force." That year, reports emerged in Isfahan regarding acid attacks on six women, which caused significant uproar at the time, and the perpetrators have yet to be identified and arrested. Hardline clerics in Iran have criticized the social presence of women for years and have sought to limit their activities to homemaking, marriage, and childbearing. Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad stated in March 2015 that Iranian universities should be segregated for three days for women and three days for men. He proposed this to solve the issue of male-female mixing in universities.