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IRAN: 29 women arrested for not wearing hijab during protests
For refusing to wear hijabs during anti-government protests, authorities in Iran have arrested and detained no less than 29 women for not putting on the mandatory headscarf.
The crackdown is already drawing criticism from activists and rights groups with the Tasnim news agency quoting Tehran police as saying that the detainees were arrested for “disturbing public security”.
However, Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American analyst, said Iranian authorities are “very much aware” that more than half of the population is against wearing the hijab.
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“It’s evident by the fact that the morality police are on constant patrol of the streets of major cities like Tehran,” Dagres told Al Jazeera.
“Authorities know that if they don’t crack down, Iranian women will continue to test the boundaries of what they can and cannot wear,” he added.
Following a new wave of protests in the country in recent weeks, women have renewed their opposition to the law, taking off their hijabs in public and waving them on wooden sticks like flags to express their displeasure at stifling government policies.
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