The Spokesperson of Iran’s Armed Forces said people with “improper hijab” especially celebrities and those in the movie industry who do not observe the regime’s mandatory hijab laws were “Satan’s army”.
Speaking at a hijab festival, Abolfazl Shekarchi said that those he deems as “improperly veiled” were “brazenly waging war against the Quran”.
The military official’s used the term “moharebeh” or waging war against God for those who do not observe the regime’s hijab laws even while according to Islamic jurisprudence moharebeh is defined as “the use of a weapon against people to scare them” and according to Article 282 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, the punishment for moharebeh is “execution, crucifixion, cutting off the right hand and left foot, and exile.”
Amnesty International considers charges such as “baghi” or armed rebellion, “moharebeh”, and corruption on earth to be ambiguous and open to interpretation and says that the Islamic Republic of Iran usually uses such accusations as a way to deal with protesters or suppress political activists.
In another part of his speech, Abolfazl Shekarchi claimed Iranian filmmakers and artists have been living off the regime’s money for years “but have now joined Satan’s army”.
He also claimed that Iranians’ non-observance of the mandatory hijab has caused an “increase in divorce, an increase in tension in families, an increase in mental illnesses and depression and lack of security in society and has also dealt a heavy blow to the country’s manufacturing industry and economy.”
Shekarchi did not refer to any statistics or research and did not provide evidence for his claims.
July 12 is Hijab and Chastity Day according to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and government institutions and agencies are supposed to promote the hijab for a week.
To promote this, government officials and those affiliated with the government have made various comments on hijab observation.
Reza Akrami, a member of the Central Council of the Combatant Clergy Association, said on Tuesday that “if a woman exposes herself on the street, no driver or pedestrian can control his eyes, and this will lead to an accident.”
“You cover anything expensive. Are gold shops like fruit shops? They sell jewelry from under glass instead of offering it without any cover like bananas and grapes,” he said.
Javad Hosseini Kia, the representative of the western city of Kermanshah in the parliament, said that “the structure of a man is different from that of a woman.”
“Have you ever seen someone put a crow in a cage and take it home? No. But you see many nightingales and lovebirds (in cages),” he said.
