FAMOUS HIJAB PROTESTER MISSING, LIKELY ARRESTED
NEWS: WORLD NEWS
by David Nussman • ChurchMilitant.com • January 25, 2018 3 Comments
Human rights attorney says woman in famous video was arrested, possibly subject to torture
You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today!
TEHRAN, Iran (ChurchMilitant.com) - At the close of 2017, an Iranian woman removing her hijab and waving it like a flag became a symbol of the protests sweeping through Iran. That woman's current whereabouts are unknown, but locals claim she was arrested by police.
Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh claims she spoke on Sunday with eyewitnesses of the now-famous video. They all said the woman was arrested and taken to the police station.
Sotoudeh is concerned because police in Iran are known to illegally torture those they arrest, before the accused even has the chance to stand trial.
She told reporters, "Before even being tried by legal authorities, [women] are taken to a place called 'Gasht-e Ershad' [Guidance Patrol], where they can be harshly beaten up."
"Whether a case is opened for them or not is not important," Sotoudeh continued. "The illegal punishment they have had to bear has always been much more than what is foreseen in the law."
The woman in the video was violating Iran's so-called modesty laws, which mandate that women wear Islamic head coverings at all times.
At the time, some media reports claimed these laws were no longer enforced in cities like Tehran during the protests. However, the laws and accompanying punishments were only loosened slightly. Those wearing loose-fitting hijabs and too much makeup were assigned to mandatory Islamic culture classes, rather than the usual punishment of jail time.
As Sotoudeh recently confirmed, some claimed the woman in the video was arrested for taking off her hijab.
The illegal punishment they have had to bear has always been much more than what is foreseen in the law. Tweet
Anti-government protests raged in Iran as the new year dawned. Among the protesters' concerns were economic instability and unemployment.
Protesters were also opposing the Islamic theocracy that runs the country's government. Iran's high-ranking officials have close ties with a select group of Muslim religious leaders, including some known for supporting terrorists like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
One of the organizations involved in the protests is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Its president, Maryam Rajavi, gave a speech on January 19, during a meeting with U.S. politicians at NCRI's offices outside Paris, France. She said during the speech:
The uprising showed that Iranian society is in an explosive state, simmering with discontent. It showed that the regime is much weaker than perceived. It showed that the billions of windfall dollars from the nuclear deal did nothing to cure the regime's instability. And finally, the uprising showed that the people of Iran detest both regime factions and want it overthrown in its entirety.
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was present for the meeting where Rajavi gave that speech. He said during the meeting, "The resistance is knitting together, both in the country and in the world, a tremendous force that is sustaining the right to believe that you can be free."
Gingrich, a Republican, was joined by former Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli, thus making for a show of bipartisan support.
Journalist Sohrab Ahmari, an immigrant from Iran and convert to Catholicism, was very interested in covering the protests. He stated on Twitter on January 1, "The Iranian people have no beef with Israel or Saudi Arabia and certainly not with America. To most of them, 'Gaza' is a meaningless abstraction. What they want is a normal, proud and prosperous nation-state."
Ahmari's tweet linked to an article he wrote in collaboration with Peter Kohanloo titled "An Iranian Revolution of National Dignity." As the piece notes, some protesters were calling for an Iranian Republic instead of the current Islamic Republic of Iran.
Comments
Post a Comment