Iran Vows To Prosecute Women, Close Businesses That Shun Hijab: Iran’s Police Chief
New
Age Islam News Bureau
10
April 2023
•
Iran Installs Cameras In Public Places To Identify, Penalize Unveiled Women
•
Schoolgirl Poisonings Continue Across IranIn Continuation Of The Mysterious
Phenomenon
•
Afghan Clerics Calls On Taliban To Ensure Access Of Education To Women In
Country
•
EU Reacts to Ban on Afghan Women Working For UN
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
--------
Iran
Vows To Prosecute Women, Close Businesses That Shun Hijab: Iran’s Police Chief
09
April ,2023
File
photo of Iranian women wearing hijab. (AFP)
------------
Iranian
women will be prosecuted and businesses could risk being shut for failing to
observe the country’s hijab rules, Iran’s police chief said, escalating the
regime’s crackdown on dissent against mandatory head scarves.
Under
the new law, Iranian women who refuse to wear head coverings in public places
or inside their cars would face court trials and have their vehicles impounded,
the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing Brigadier-General
AhmadrezaRadan.
The
move follows the death in custody of MahsaAmini, 22, in September who was
arrested by the country’s so-called morality police for allegedly wearing
improper clothes. Her death triggered the biggest wave of protests against the
country’s clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The
new measures will also allow the police to shut any business whose employees
fail to abide by compulsory hijab requirements, the report said. The police
plan to use “smart cameras and equipment to identify and send warnings to women
in violation of the dress code,” the police said in a separate statement on
Saturday.
The
Shargh daily newspaper reported on Monday that more than 100 stores and
businesses were closed over the last month for failing to comply with Iran’s Islamic
dress code.
Authorities
hanged four people in December and January in connection with protests. Rights
groups say more than 400 people died in the regime’s crackdown on protesters
and thousands more were arrested.
Source:
Al Arabiya
--------
Iran
installs cameras in public places to identify, penalize unveiled women
April
08, 2023
Iranians
women shop at Tajrish bazaar in the capital Tehran, on September 20, 2022. (AFP
-----------
In
a further attempt to rein in increasing numbers of women defying the compulsory
dress code, Iranian authorities are installing cameras in public places and
thoroughfares to identify and penalize unveiled women, the police announced on
Saturday.
After
they have been identified, violators will receive “warning text messages as to
the consequences”, police said in a statement.
The
move is aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law,” said the
statement, carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other state media,
adding that such resistance tarnishes the country’s spiritual image and spreads
insecurity.
A
growing number of Iranian women have been ditching their veils since the death
of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police last
September. MahsaAmini had been detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule.
Security forces violently put down the revolt.
Still,
risking arrest for defying the obligatory dress code, women are still widely
seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets around the country.
Videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police have flooded social
media.
Saturday’s
police statement called on owners of businesses to “seriously monitor the
observance of societal norms with their diligent inspections”.
Under
Iran’s Islamic sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged
to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their
figures. Violators have faced public rebuke, fines or arrest.
Describing
the veil as “one of the civilizational foundations of the Iranian nation” and
“one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” an Interior Ministry
statement said on March 30 that there would be no retreat on the issue.
It
urged citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have in past decades
emboldened hard-liners to attack women. Last week a viral video showed a man
throwing yoghurt at two unveiled women in a shop.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2283366/middle-east
--------
Schoolgirl
Poisonings Continue Across Iran In Continuation Of The Mysterious Phenomenon
08
April ,2023
A
young woman lies in hospital after reports of poisoning at an unspecified
location in Iran in this still image from video from March 2, 2023. (Reuters)
------------
Dozens
of schoolgirls were poisoned Saturday in several schools across Iran, local
media reported, in continuation of the mysterious phenomenon that has shaken
the country for months.
Since
late November many schools, mostly for girls, have been affected by sudden
poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances, in some cases causing
fainting and hospitalization among the students.
At
least “60 students were poisoned in a girls’ school in the town of Haftkel” in
the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, state television’s IRIB news
agency cited a local official as saying.
A
number of schoolgirls were poisoned in “five schools in Ardabil in the
northwest,” where the victims showed symptoms of “anxiety, shortness of breath
and headaches,” a provincial medical official told the news agency.
In
the northwestern town of Urmia, capital of West Azerbaijan province, “a number
of schoolgirls were taken to hospital on Saturday after feeling sick,” ILNA
news agency reported without further elaboration.
According
to an official count provided on March 7, “more than 5,000 students” have been
affected by similar poisonings in more than 230 establishments, located in 25
of the country’s 31 provinces.
On
Friday MP Hamidreza Kazemi, the head of the national fact-finding committee
formed to investigate these cases, specified that “the final report” would be
published “in two weeks.”
“We
have received reports from various bodies and we are studying the issue in
order to present our conclusion to parliament,” he was quoted as saying by
state television.
Iran’s
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had called on March 6 for “severe sentences” up to
the death penalty against those found responsible for the poisonings, which he
described as “unforgivable crimes.”
The
poisoning cases began two months after the start of a protest movement in Iran
sparked by the September 16 death in custody of MahsaAmini, 22, following her
arrest for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
Source:
Al Arabiya
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/04/08/Schoolgirl-poisonings-continue-across-Iran
--------
Afghan
clerics calls on Taliban to ensure access of education to women in country
9
April, 2023
Kabul
[Afghanistan], April 9 (ANI): As Afghan females continue to suffer under
Taliban’s hardline regime, religious clerics of the country have called upon
the Taliban to ensure access of educational opportunities, TOLOnews reported.
The
hijab shouldn’t be used as a justification to prohibit women from receiving an
education, according to Abdul Sami Ghaznavi, a lecturer at the Central Jihadi
Madrasa, and teaching women is one of the responsibilities of the Islamic
government, the Afghan news agency reported.
“Education
is not a problem in the eyes of Sharia. Mohammadullah Mohsen, another religious
cleric, stated that Islam necessitates that we comprehend and receive
education.”
Meanwhile,
once more, female students requested from the current administration that
schools be opened for them.
“There
has been no word about the opening of our schools this year, just like last
year.
We
are surrounded by uncertainty,” explained student Maryam, according to
TOLOnews.
“Under
any conditions offered by the current government, all Afghan girls are prepared
to continue their studies. It is enough that they open the doors of the schools
to us as soon as possible,” another student Fawzia said.
Since
15 August 2021, the de facto authorities have barred girls from attending
secondary school, restricted women and girls’ freedom of movement, excluded
women from most areas of the workforce and banned women from using parks, gyms,
and public bath houses.
Moreover,
time and again the UN Security Council has expressed concern over the Taliban’s
decision to ban girls from attending school above the sixth grade in
Afghanistan.
These
restrictions culminate with the confinement of Afghan women and girls to the
four walls of their homes. (ANI)
Source:
ThePrint
--------
EU
Reacts to Ban on Afghan Women Working For UN
By
Mohammad Farshad Daryosh
08
APRIL 2023
The
European Union said that the ban on women working for UN organizations violates
international law and that if aid to Afghanistan cannot be delivered regardless
of gender, aid activities will be reconsidered.
According
to the EU press release, the EU reaffirms its commitment to staying engaged and
delivering assistance for the benefit of the Afghan population, within a
principled approach.
“We
urge the Taliban to allow women to equally and meaningfully participate in aid
and services delivery, so that women can engage fully and actively in the
society, as well as remain beneficiaries of aid. Female staff must not be
replaced. As the EU stated in the Council Conclusions of 20 March 2023, where
activities cannot be continued in line with the EU’s principled approach, i.e.
providing aid in a non-discriminatory way, regardless of gender, support to
those activities will be reconsidered,” the press release reads.
"Not
just UN offices, but to the other offices of the government, rights must be
ensured for Afghan women employees, to allow Afghan women to return to their
jobs," said Maryam MaroufArwin, an activist for women's rights.
In
the meantime, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
said in a press release that the decision of the current Afghan government will
only reduce services and support for all Afghans.
“I
am deeply alarmed and strongly condemn this continued assault on women’s human
rights, which will only have the effect of reducing services and support for
all Afghans. Alongside the international community, the United States calls on
the Taliban to reverse this reprehensible decision immediately,” USAID press release
reads.
The
Ministry of Economy said that continued assistance should not be linked to
political or cultural issues.
“The
people of Afghanistan need the assistance of the international community, and
helping the people of Afghanistan is a responsibility and international
community. So, aid should not be linked to political and cultural issues,” said
Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy of the Ministry of Economy.
Analysts
said that the ban on female Afghan UN employees will be detrimental for the
nation's economic stability.
“Cutting
off aid will certainly intensify the humanitarian crisis, the economic
catastrophe, and increase the humanitarian crisis,” said Shakir Yaqobi, an
economist.
"Preventing
the activity of women in various international organizations, especially the
UN, will ... create challenges for this government,” said MaisamKazemi, a
political analyst.
The
United Nations said that 3,300 male and female employees of the organization
have stayed at home since women were banned from working at UN agencies.
Source:ToloNews
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-182877
--------
URL:
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism