Iranian Woman Sentenced for Having "No-Hijab Infectious Disease"
New Age
Islam News Bureau
13 July 2023
• Iranian Woman Sentenced for Having
"No-Hijab Infectious Disease"
• Iranian Women Use Phone App Gershad To Evade
Morality Police
• Afghan Female Makeup Artists Continue to
Protest Ban on Women's Beauty Salons
• Reem Alattas, Director Of Value Advisory at
“Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing”
• NCW To Release Report On Rights Of India's
Muslim Women
• Understanding Saudi Media and the Mahsa Amini
Protests’ Role in the Saudi-Iranian Détente
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-sentenced-hijab-disease/d/130204
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Iranian
Woman Sentenced for Having "No-Hijab Infectious Disease"
A criminal court in Tehran has handed a woman accused of flouting
mandatory hijab rules six months in prison and a two-year travel ban, and
ordered her to attend six months of counseling sessions for the treatment of
her “mental illness.”
------
JULY 12,
2023
A
criminal court in Tehran has handed a woman accused of flouting mandatory hijab
rules six months in prison and a two-year travel ban, and ordered her to attend
six months of counseling sessions for the treatment of her “mental illness.”
As an
alternative sentence, the court imposed up to 300 hours of community service
and mandatory psychotherapy sessions twice a week.
A
photograph of the court ruling began circulating on social networks on July 10,
sparking outrage among Iranians over the increasing number of cases targeting
women who defy compulsory veiling laws.
In an
act of defiance against the ideology and laws of the Islamic Republic, a
growing number of women have appeared in public without hijab since nationwide
protests erupted in September last year.
Some
defiant women were arrested, summoned by the authorities and faced legal cases,
while hundreds of businesses were shut down for allegedly failing to enforce
the Islamic Republic’s strict dress codes on their customers.
A civil
activist in Tehran who has chosen not to wear the hijab in public, tells
IranWire that the Iranian judiciary seeks to "humiliate women and
undermine their efforts to create social change."
The
Second Criminal Court of the Judicial Complex in Tehran said the woman in the
latest case was affected by the “no-hijab infectious disease” and accused her of
engaging in "sexual promiscuity."
The
woman was imposed the travel ban over concerns she could engage in
"anti-Iranian" activities during foreign trips.
According
to the court, flouting compulsory hijab laws is an "anti-social"
behavior that constitutes "a contagious mental illness."
It
claimed that Western security services "exploit this illness, furthering
their anti-Iranian agenda within Iranian society."
A friend
of the woman tells IranWire she was tried in absentia: "About a month ago,
she received an unexpected SMS instructing her to click on a link to view a
court notice related to her alleged hijab violation. After clicking the link,
she discovered the text of the court summons, which stated that she was being
sued for publicly removing her hijab from her head, and required her to appear
in court on a specified date."
"She
maintained her innocence, explaining that she hadn’t committed any crime and
that her scarf had simply fallen off while she was walking."
The
source adds that her friend, who decided not to attend the hearing, received an
SMS five days after the scheduled date for the court session saying she had
been sentenced in absentia.
"On
what grounds do they accuse a person of promoting debauchery and prostitution,
of having mental and sexual illnesses, of being antisocial and abnormal, and of
seeking public attention?” her friend asked.
The
woman has 20 days to appeal the ruling, which claimed that she was identified
by facial recognition cameras. According to IT experts, the Islamic Republic
still lacks such cameras, as well as a comprehensive citizen identity database.
IranWire’s
investigations have shown that the government does not bear the costs of
psychotherapy sessions imposed by the judiciary. These sessions are often
provided at an exorbitant price by clinics affiliated with or close to the
judiciary.
“People
must shoulder the costs themselves and spend a minimum of 26 million tomans
($520) twice a week for six months," a person with knowledge of the matter
says.
Source: iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/118423-iranian-woman-handed-harsh-sentence-for-no-hijab-infectious-disease/
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Iranian
Women Use Phone App Gershad To Evade Morality Police
An Iranian police officer speaks with a woman after she was detained
over "inappropriate" clothes during a crackdown to enforce the dress
code in Tehran. AFP
------
Holly
Johnston
Jul 13,
2023
When
Elnaz still lived in Iran, the daily presence of morality police amplified her
desire to leave.
She was
once apprehended in a park in Tehran by the morality police, who said her
daughter, then six, should be wearing a hijab.
Women
have been barred from universities and unable to access basic services as
Tehran ups its surveillance of protesters, women and girls going about their
daily lives without the hijab – a gesture that carries significant risk.
That is
why tens of thousands of women are now using a mobile phone app called Gershad,
which allows users to mark morality police locations on a map and inform other
women where they may be stopped and checked.
The app
was set up in 2016 by a group of Iranian activists. Following protests last
autumn, it was updated to also show the location of security forces cracking
down on demonstrators. More than 500 people have been killed since the
demonstrations started, according to human rights groups.
“It was
immediately banned upon its release,” the app's manager, a human-rights
activist in exile, told The National, with users resorting to costly VPNs to
utilise the application.
“Non-profit
projects usually don't get much attention, but after it was launched, it was so
popular that the government started spamming and attacking the app,” she said.
“I love
Iran. Iran is so beautiful, but I don't want my daughter to grow up in that
country, in that culture,” Elnaz told The National from Canada.
“You
can't have a relationship. If you walk with a boy and the morality police see
you, you'll go to prison.”
App
users can report the location of morality police and security forces and also
the harassment they faced.
“There
are a lot of different tools, you have the location, you have the type of the
report, and users have the option of adding what happened,” the app's manager
said.
One
woman said she was kicked out of a laptop repair shop in Isfahan for not
wearing the hijab, while another said she was prevented from visiting her
father’s grave for the same reason.
Those
detained by morality police and Iranian intelligence have been tortured and
even killed.
In
September 2022, Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police,
sparking the biggest protests in decades. While women had previously flouted
the dress code, her death has encouraged more to do so.
Some
others have used the app to share their motivation to defy authorities, which
order women to wear loose clothing in public.
“Today,
I overcame my fear and wore a T-shirt. Between the smiles and angry looks and
the woman who told me she will go out without a long coat tomorrow, my
motivation has increased a hundred-fold.”
On
Wednesday, government vehicles drove through the streets of several cities as
part of a “hijab and chastity” convoy. Loudspeakers warned women to wear hijab
or face legal consequences, part of the growing threat from Tehran.
“What
they tell us is that they don’t want to run away,” said Gershad staff.
“They
want us to tell them ‘here is the police – go and attack them’ and we can’t do
that.”
The
government has “completely changed” its tactics in enforcing Iran’s dress code,
they said, using civilians who support the regime to report women on the
street.
“These
are not officers, these are not police, these are normal citizens, but they
support the government, which tells them ‘OK, I give you a walkie-talkie, I'll
give you this application, you can go and take pictures'.”
'Worse
than North Korea'
In the
conservative city of Tabriz, women have reported being barred from banks,
schools and health clinics for not wearing the hijab, Gershad staff said,
adding they have similar reports from 12 cities nationwide.
“I'm a
man, but I've seen women in morality police vans. Just being arrested for
wearing shorter skirts or leaving some of their hair out of their scarves. I
felt ashamed that I couldn't rescue them,” Arash, 30, told The National from
Tehran.
“The
mandatory hijab rule is a big deal … but it was just a trigger. Morality police
were present during all these years and they've done pretty harsh things before
the killing of Mahsa Amini.
“You
don't see traditional morality police forces. Now they send secret police
forces to scare women by taking photos of them and verbally threatening them …
you don't see traditional vans on the streets.
“It's
the state of terror.”
Iranian
authorities have threatened to prosecute women pictured without a hijab in
their cars, installing cameras to survey travellers, complicating Gershad's
efforts to alert hijab checks.
Gershad
staff told The National that the morality police have a shift pattern and “we
know that they're staying in one place for six hours and then they are going
home. But with cameras is not like that. We need to find the correct
algorithm.”
Elnaz
said her sister was apprehended by the morality police while pregnant and held
for two days for not wearing a long coat.
“She
said she wanted to go home and was kicked in the stomach.”
“In
Iran, everything belongs to men. When you don't have the hijab, you can't go to
the doctor, you can't go anywhere. You're not allowed to be alive, you just go
to prison.
“Everything
is hidden, the government cut off the internet and the world doesn't know
what's happening.
“It’s
worse than North Korea.”
Source: thenationalnews.com
https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/2023/07/13/iranian-women-use-phone-app-gershad-to-evade-morality-police/
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Afghan
Female Makeup Artists Continue to Protest Ban on Women's Beauty Salons
12 July
2023
They
claimed that there are more than 12,000 women's beauty salons across the
country.
Earlier,
the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in a letter ordered that women's beauty salons
should be closed within a period of one month.
25,
Rahila, a make-up artist, said that after the universities were closed, she
sought to work in women's beauty salons.
“They
closed schools for us, universities, educational centres and banned us from
work. I came here in a women's environment to learn a profession; they closed
that on us as well. I don’t know what the Islamic Emirate wants from us,” she
said.
“The
women's beauty salons are not doing tattoos... they are just working with
health stuff,” said MarriamShorash, a women’s rights activist.
Meanwhile,
some of the female makeup artists held gatherings to protest the decision of
the Islamic Emirate.
“There
are 12,000 beauty salons. In every beauty salon between 15 to 20 people are
working. Every worker and every woman supports their families,” said Alia, a
female make-up artist.
“First
of all, I am a woman who supports two families. I have disabled kids with me.
So, the same is in all families. There is a widow in almost every family,” said
Meena, head of the union of make-up artists.
Since
its takeover of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate has issued multiple decrees
that restrict women from public life.
Source: tolonews.com
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-184164
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ReemAlattas,
Director Of Value Advisory at “Systems, Applications, and Products in Data
Processing”
July 13,
2023
ReemAlattas
has been the director of value advisory for spend management at SAP since March
2022.
In her
role, she identifies and develops opportunities for business process
transformation in supply chains, strategic sourcing, purchasing automation,
working capital improvement and performance analytics.
Before
joining SAP, Alattas was the head of projects coordination at the World
Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution from 2021 to 2022.
In 2021,
Alattas served as a senior consultant at the Government Expenditure and
Projects Efficiency Authority, leading business development activities.
In 2020,
Alattas joined the Saudi Arabia Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority as a
technical consultant and acting director of the Knowledge Center.
She
founded and led Rumble Helmet from 2017 to 2020, collaborating with smart city
councils and organizations in the New York Metropolitan Area to create a
blueprint for the future of road transport.
As the
founder and scientist of Transforming Technologies Group from 2017 to 2020,
Alattas invented an augmented reality assistance system for the visually
impaired and established a pre-startup R&D lab for product development and
testing.
Alattas
also founded Fitness Transformer in 2011, conducting research to develop
innovative products, services and strategies in the fitness-tech industry.
She
worked as a technical account manager at Microsoft Saudi Arabia from 2009 to
2011. Alattas managed support issues for premier customers and represented
Microsoft within organizations to ensure the successful implementation of
solutions.
Alattas
started her career at Banque Saudi Fransi as a software engineer from 2004 to
2005. She collaborated with business teams to design and implement online
banking solutions using NET technologies.
She
earned a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of
Bridgeport, US, specializing in evolutionary modular robots for space
exploration. She became a NASA Datanaut in February 2018.
She
holds a master’s degree in computer science from King Saud University in
Riyadh, as well as a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the same
university.
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2336836/saudi-arabia
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NCW to
release report on rights of India's Muslim women
JUL 12
2023
Amidst
the raging debate on the Uniform Civil Code, the National Commission for Women
will this week release a first of its kind report on the rights of Muslim women
in the country. The findings based on a series of consultants organised by the
commi...
NCW
chairperson Rekha Sharma said that they have been holding deliberations for
over a year. “We had four zonal meetings across the country on the legal rights
of Muslim women, keeping in mind gender equality. Saturday’s programme is the
final meetin...
Law
minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is likely to attend the programme.
In
December last year, the NCW, in a plea in the Supreme Court, sought to increase
the marriageable age for Muslim women, to make it on par with that of women of
other religions.
The
women’s body contended that all personal laws were in line with penal
provisions, barring Muslim personal laws. The NCW said that as per the Indian
Christian Marriage Act 1872, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act 1936, Special
Marriage Act 1954, and H...
The NCW
said that, under the Muslim Personal Law “which continues to remain uncodified
and unconsolidated, persons who attain puberty are eligible to get married,
i.e. on attaining the age of 15 years…while they are still minor”.
Source: deccanherald.com
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/ncw-to-release-report-on-rights-of-indias-muslim-women-1236389.html
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Understanding
Saudi Media and the Mahsa Amini Protests’ Role in the Saudi-Iranian Détente
July 11,
2023
Fierce
proxy wars, accelerating nuclear programs, and threats to the global oil supply
have defined the last seven years without formal Saudi-Iranian relations. So,
when the two countries announced that they had restored ties through a
Chinese-brokered agreement, analysts were quick to cite those security and
economic concerns as the underlying motivations for the rapprochement. While
those factors did encourage episodic talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran that
began in 2021, Iran’s “woman, life, freedom” protests were far from an
afterthought in Iran and Saudi Arabia’s calculi this spring and, in fact, may
have created new incentives for both countries to finally seal the deal in
March. The protests gave Saudi Arabia significant leverage over Iran for the
first time in recent history and the Kingdom's media capabilities proved to be
a potent tool capable of advancing the two countries’ new mutual goal:
preempting a women-led second Arab Spring.
Even
though conditions were already bleak in Iran this September, with an economy
stunted at pre-2012 levels, a third of Iranians living in poverty, and fading
hopes for a new nuclear deal with much-wanted sanctions relief, the regime had
managed to contain potential domestic dissent. That changed on September 16,
with the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody after she was detained
and beaten for allegedly violating Iran’s headscarf laws. Immediately following
her passing, protests erupted across the country, uniting Iranians across
ethnic, class, and geographic lines not only in calls for “woman, life,
freedom,” but also for an end to the theocratic regime itself. The West quickly
compounded the government’s woes. Countries announced sweeping sanctions and
travel bans for Iranian security force members; the United States announced
that it was no longer pursuing talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord; and the
UN Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution to remove Iran from the
Commission on the Status of Women.
In the
face of severe diplomatic isolation, Iranian officials accused Saudi Arabia of
acting like Iran’s Western enemies by fomenting the women’s protests through
the Saudi-funded news network, Iran International. Starting in the fall, the
network began daily coverage encouraging the protests, sharply criticizing the
regime, and publicly debunking the government’s narrative on Amini’s death and
its treatment of protesters. In November, at the height of the protests, Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander openly warned, “the Al Saud
regime, which has propaganda media that only promote mischief and are openly
seeking to provoke our youth, to be careful with your behavior and control
these media.” Iran’s intelligence minister made it clear which Saudi
“propaganda media” the IRGC commander was referring to by announcing that he
was designating Iran International, a Persian-language satellite news network
based in London, as a terrorist organization. Despite public denials, British
corporate records reveal that individuals connected to the Saudi monarchy both
funded and helped launch Iran International in 2017. Since then, the channel
has amassed a following within Iran itself and among the Iranian diaspora with
24-hour broadcasts.
The
Iranian government viewed Iran International’s coverage of the Mahsa Amini
protests as so threatening that it resorted to physical intimidation of the
network’s staff before specifically asking that the Saudi government moderate
the channel’s content as part of the March agreement. When the protests
escalated in the fall, the Iranian government intensified its threats against
the network’s staff. After British police warned two network journalists of
credible state-backed threats to their lives, Iran International was forced to
suspend its U.K. operations and move its headquarters to Washington, DC. But
the network’s high-impact, critical coverage of the Iranian regime continued,
giving the Saudi government meaningful leverage over the Iranian government.
Iran International’s ability to promote the Mahsa Amini protests helped force
the Iranian government to the negotiating table, where it found itself
compelled to offer major concessions before the Kingdom agreed to stop
fomenting further tensions through the network. That commitment became
especially important to the Iranian regime when, just weeks before the détente
was announced, news broke that hundreds of Iranian school girls had been
poisoned, which could have led to a resurgence of the Mahsa Amini
protests.
Saudi
Arabia clearly benefited from an agreement that weakened Iran, particularly as
it continues to battle Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and Iran forges ahead
with its nuclear program. But the Saudi monarchy had a less obvious stake in
dampening support for Iran’s “woman, life, freedom” protests. Even though Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made public overtures to feminist causes, most
famously lifting Saudi Arabia’s diving ban for women, these moves have been
deeply unpopular with key conservative constituencies throughout the country.
Accordingly, these liberalization efforts have been paired with strict limits
on dissent. While bin Salman benefited from the pressure that the Mahsa Amini
protests put on the Iranian government, he was also keenly aware that the
ideology underlying the “woman, life, freedom” movement could catalyze greater
activism in the Kingdom and ultimately threaten his rule. As Saudi-funded Iran
International fanned the flames of the Mahsa Amini protests, the Saudi
government worked to limit the protest’ spillover effects into the Kingdom. Consequently,
it was relatively quiet about the protests, even before it reached an agreement
with the beleaguered Iranian regime. Despite deep historical divisions, both
countries now find themselves confronting the same challenge of managing
domestic instability. A muted Iran International relieves pressure on Iran’s
regime and helps prevent potential challenges to the Saudi monarchy’s rule. But
in the process, the women of Iran now find themselves without a once powerful
mobilizing asset. Examining the role of Iranian women in this remarkable
détente not only helps explain the rationale behind it, but also offers a
vision of what Saudi-Iranian cooperation may look like in practice.
Source: cfr.org
https://www.cfr.org/blog/understanding-saudi-media-and-mahsa-amini-protests-role-saudi-iranian-detente
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-sentenced-hijab-disease/d/130204