Tehran: An Iranian court has sentenced a 22-year-old rights activist to three years and eight months in prison and fined 8 million tomans for not complying with the country’s mandatory hijab rules.
Activist Melika Qaragozlu, was arrested after participating in a nationwide civil-disobedience campaign on July 12. She had posted a video of herself on social media without wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf.
Qaragozlu’s verdict came as Iran faced widespread protests after a 22-year-old woman died while in police custody for violating hijab rules.
Her lawyer, Mohammad Ali Kamfiruzi, wrote on Twitter on September 19, that the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran had recently sentenced his client “for posting a few seconds of a video without a headscarf on social media.”
“My client has numerous medical records and although the forensic doctor confirmed that she must be under the supervision of a specialist psychiatrist, that was not taken into account in issuing the verdict,” he added.
Qaragozlu is a student at Allameh Tabataba’i University and a multi-media journalist.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, women have been legally required to wear “Islamic” modest clothing.
In practice, this means that women must wear a chador, a full-body abaya, or a headscarf and coat that covers their arms.
In recent years, Iran has witnessed several campaigns against the compulsory hijab, but the Iranian morality police launched a campaign against women accused of not complying with the dress code, prompting opponents of this trend to demand action.
