Tehran Police Arrests 29 Citizens Protesting Mandatory Hijab

Tehran police reported the arrest of 29 individuals in the city who removed their headscarves in protest against mandatory hijab laws. The police stated that the detainees were linked to the 'White Wednesdays' campaign. According to a report on Thursday, February 1, by Tasnim News Agency, the police announced that these individuals had 'uncovered their hijabs' following calls from satellite networks under the title of White Wednesdays. However, the report did not provide any details about the location, time, or manner of the arrests, only referring to them as 'deceived individuals.' The police have handed over the detainees to judicial authorities. Young Journalists Club also referred to these 29 individuals as 'deceived by the secret freedoms campaign' and quoted Tehran police as saying that they had disrupted 'social security.' The secret freedoms campaign was initiated by Masih Alinejad, a journalist residing in the U.S., to combat mandatory hijab in Iran, receiving significant support from many Iranian women both inside and outside the country. This campaign has recently been asking its followers to come out every Wednesday wearing white headscarves to protest against mandatory hijab and then send images of their protests to the campaign. The new arrests come after a video was published on social media on Wednesday, December 27, showing a young girl in Tehran's Enghelab Street waving her headscarf attached to a stick like a flag while standing on an electric pole. This girl, known as the 'Girl of Enghelab Street,' was identified by some social media users as Vida Mohad. According to information from Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and human rights activist, she was released after being arrested twice. Masih Alinejad emphasized in an interview with Radio Farda that today's protests by these women are a result of the Iranian government's continuous 'repression' over the years, which has now manifested in this way. She stated, 'The main reason that the girls of the revolution tied the symbol of mandatory hijab to a stick is that they are protesting against their arrests and repression by the morality police and demanding their lost rights.' Alinejad also referenced some official statistics provided by the Islamic Republic regarding its treatment of women, stating, 'The police officially announced that in just one year, three million six hundred thousand people were arrested or stopped in the street for the crime of improper hijab. Eighteen thousand of these individuals were sent to court. Forty thousand vehicles were confiscated in just eight months due to improper hijab. Therefore, Iranian women had been arrested and charged before they protested against mandatory hijab.' Alinejad concluded, 'The peaceful protests of the girls of the revolution and the women of the White Wednesdays campaign are a reaction to these repressions, pressures, and the violent behavior of the morality police.' On Tuesday, February 7, other images circulated on social media showing at least six people in Tehran and one in Isfahan repeating this action by climbing on electric poles. The response to these girls' actions has been so widespread that the hashtag 'Girl_Enghelab_Street' changed to 'Girls_Enghelab_Street' and became one of the main trends on Twitter. The day after that, reports and images of several women openly protesting against mandatory hijab in other cities of Iran, including Mashhad, were published. A protesting woman in Mashhad, while wearing a chador, was seen waving a headscarf attached to a stick. In addition to women, images of several men have also been posted online, showing them waving headscarves or holding placards in solidarity with the women taking this action. Before the announcement of the arrest of these 29 individuals, German news agency reported, citing individuals identified as 'eyewitnesses,' that six of the 'Girls of Enghelab Street' had been arrested. Meanwhile, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, confirmed only the arrest of one of the girls from Enghelab Street. Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General of Iran, described the actions of women who remove their headscarves in protest against mandatory hijab in Iran as 'minor and insignificant,' 'childish,' and stemming from 'ignorance.' He stated, 'In my opinion, those who have done this are mostly acting out of ignorance and emotional provocation, which may also have external influences.' Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi himself is among the judicial officials who, in September 2016, stated that it is not possible to assign 'agents' to every family and individual in the country, claiming that 'coercive' measures regarding hijab in Iran have been ineffective. According to Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code, 'Women who appear in public without proper hijab will be sentenced to imprisonment from 10 days to 2 months or fined from 50,000 to 500,000 rials.' Soheila Jelodarzadeh, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, considered the actions of the 'Girls of Enghelab Street' as a result of 'unnecessary constraints,' 'pressures,' and 'the wrong behavior' of the government. Ms. Jelodarzadeh stated, 'At one time, we imposed restrictions on women and placed them under unnecessary constraints. This issue caused these pressures to erupt, and the girls of Enghelab Street placed their headscarves on sticks.'