Anti-hijab protester Shaparak Shajarizadeh who has been detained for the second time has started a hunger strike protesting her extrajudicial detention.
Shaparak Shajarizadeh was arbitrarily arrested on May 8, 2018, along with her 9-year-old son in the city of Kashan, central Iranian province of Isfahan. His son was freed several hours later but she is still in captivity.
Ms. Shajarizadeh is going to stand trial at Branch 1089 of Tehran’s Penal Court on June 10, 2018, on the charge of “violating the compulsory veil” and “promoting corruption.”
Nasrin Sotoudeh, her lawyer, says a bail in the amount of 50 million tomans has been set for her.
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has required women to wear headscarf in public.
The Islamic dress code also forbids women touching, dancing or singing with men outside their families.
Women are only allowed to show their face, hands and feet in public and are supposed to wear only modest colours.
Iranian women immediately face violent arrest and detention if they do not comply with the compulsory veil and dress code, while those who have assailed women with acid and those who steal from people in corrupt financial enterprises are never punished and remain at large.
Over the years, however, women have pushed back the boundaries and protested against the compulsory veil.
