Iran’s hijab row: Investigation urged

Sharmin Nahar Nipa :
Protests over the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in Iran continue to erupt, plunging the Islamic Republic into an unprecedented political crisis. At least 80 people have been killed as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force. Hundreds of people have also been arrested, with protests reported in most of the country’s 31 provinces.
On September 14, 2022, the Iran’s Morality Police arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for purportedly wearing a hijab improperly and sent her to an “educational and orientation” class at police headquarters. She was transferred to a hospital that same day in a coma and died two days later from internal injuries.
Eyewitnesses claim that Amini died due to injuries sustained while in Morality Police custody. Mahsa’s father told the press that authorities covered bruises on her body in the hospital and refused to let the family see them.
Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), the Iranian government’s main security apparatus dedicated to crowd control and protest suppression, authorities have blamed her death on a heart ailment, but her family said she had no such condition.
Women have played a prominent role in the protests, waving and burning their veils. Some have publicly cut their hair. The protests have been the largest to sweep Iran since demonstrations over fuel prices in 2019 when 1,500 people were reportedly killed in a crackdown on protesters – the bloodiest confrontation in the country’s history.
However, Iran faced international criticism over the death of Amini in police custody. Iran’s crackdown on the protesters also drawn widespread global condemnation for the widespread and systemic violations of human rights allegedly committed by the country’s security forces
The United Nations, the European Union and rights groups have called for independent investigations into the protests and the state response on the protesters.
Demonstrators have also taken to the streets in cities across Australia, Iraq, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Turkey, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the US to express solidarity with Iranian protesters. In Iraq, dozens of Iraqi and Iranian Kurds rallied outside the UN compound in the northern city of Erbil.
Rights group Amnesty International said protesters face a “spiralling deadly response from security forces” and called for an independent United Nations investigation.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised the issue of human rights with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on last Thursday.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s “Morality Police” over allegations of abuse of Iranian women, saying it held the unit responsible for the death of a 22-year-old in custody that has sparked protests around Iran.
The US Treasury Department also accused the “Morality Police,” which is the component of LEF tasked with enforcing the country’s laws against immodesty and societal vices, of violating the rights of peaceful protesters and said it had imposed sanctions on seven senior Iranian military and security officials, including the chief of the Iranian army’s ground forces.
Canada will impose sanctions on those responsible for the death of Amini, including Iran’s morality police unit and its leadership, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.
“We’ve seen Iran disregarding human rights time and time again, now we see it with the death of Mahsa Amini and the crackdown on protests,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
Iran said the United States was supporting rioters and seeking to destabilise the Islamic Republic.
“Washington is always trying to weaken Iran’s stability and security although it has been unsuccessful,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
On his Instagram page, Kanaani accused the leaders of the United States and some European countries of abusing a tragic incident in support of “rioters” and ignoring “the presence of millions of people in the streets and squares of the country in support of the system”.
Moreover, the death of Amini has reignited anger over issues including restrictions on personal freedoms and the strict dress codes for women in Iran.
During the ongoing protests, people of Iran, especially the women, have taken to the street breaking local laws and religious mandates.Many Iranian women have cut off their hair and removed and burned their hijabs, showing their dissents over dress codes.
Female protesters have also been seen dancing near large bonfires, clappingand chanting “woman, life, freedom”.
Iran’s hijab-wearing policy based on surveys conducted by the Iranian Students’ Survey Association between 2006 and 2014 and published by the Rouhani administration in 2018, noted that around 49.2 per cent of the population believed that whether or not to wear the hijab was a personal matter that should not be made compulsory.
Despite the fact, the Iranian government is unlikely to make a fundamental change in the existing dress codes protests and continue to undermine rights of Iranians who are willing to fight for establishing their rights and freedom of expression.

(The writer is a Senior News and Programme Presenter, Bangla TV).