An Iranian Judiciary official in Razavi Khorasan Province announced that a considerable number of women in Mashhad had been summoned and detained for removing Hijab (the mandatory veil) in their photos posted on social media.
Vali Ghanbari-Rad, deputy to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Mashhad, capital of Razavi Khorasan Province, northeastern Iran, said a large number of women were arrested for posting unveiled photos of themselves in the Instagram, the official IRNA news agency reported on June 15, 2020.
The deputy to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Mashhad did not specify the exact numbers or identities of those arrested for taking photos after removing Hijab and posting them on the internet.
Ghanbari-Rad described the photos as “obscene” which promote “indecency and lewdness in the Instagram.”
Some of the many citizens arrested have been assigned penal sentences and sent to prison. Some others have been freed on bail, and their cases sent to the Judiciary to be decided on.
Ghanbari-Rad said some of the identified women have appeared before the courthouse, expressing remorse. Their sentences have been suspended and they will have to take in “cultural” courses, i.e. to correct their behavior.
The arrests in Mashhad come in the wake of an announcement by the social deputy for the State Security Force’s FATA Police in charge monitoring the cyberspace. Ramin Pashaii said, “There is no difference between crimes in the cyberspace and on the ground. All cases which disrupt the public opinion will be dealt with.”
“Removing Hijab in the cyberspace is one of the subdivisions of abnormal behaviors considered an offense,” Pasha’ii added.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
Article 13 of the declaration reiterates: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
The Iranian regime continues to intervene in all the details of the lives of the people of Iran, in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
