Reports Detail Abuse of Detained Women's Rights Activists In Iran
Women's rights activists imprisoned in Gilan province in northern Iran have been subjected to severe beatings and mental abuse, Iran International can reveal.
Women's rights activists imprisoned in Gilan province in northern Iran have been subjected to severe beatings and mental abuse, Iran International can reveal.
According to information obtained by Iran International, Sara Jahani, a doctor at a hospital in Rasht, refused to share her phone's passcode with authorities and was beaten for this resistance.
Meanwhile, in the Ministry of Intelligence's detention center, Hooman Taheri, a Gilan-based activist, also suffered repeated severe assaults. Days after being transferred to the public ward, he still bears visible signs of a broken tooth, extensive facial swelling, and bruises on his neck and body.
It has been reported that some detainees have been denied communication privileges and visitation rights to prevent the disclosure of abuse.
Last Thursday, the Islamic Republic's security forces arrested several women's rights activists in the cities of Rasht, Fooman, Anzali, and Lahijan.
Condemning these detentions, hundreds of activists have called for their immediate release.
As the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death at the hands of the hijab police approaches, the government's efforts to suppress activists, students, and teachers have escalated. Security agencies have recently been summoning and issuing threats over the phone to dozens of students across Iranian universities.
Various reports also highlight security pressure on families of those killed in the uprising, aiming to prevent gatherings on the anniversary of their children's deaths as well as desecration of victims’ graves.
Just last week, members of Iran's national women's muay thai team boldly challenged the regulations by competing unveiled at the Asian Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital.
This courageous act has triggered an outcry among hardliners, with some officials even disputing the team's official representation of the Islamic Republic. Others are calling on the Ministry of Sports to take decisive action to quell such open defiance.
The government has proposed a bill that, if approved, will impose heavy fines and other punishments on celebrities including athletes who appear unveiled in public.
Over the past few years, several female athletes have chosen to compete unveiled at international events, seeking asylum abroad to avoid being compelled to return to Iran and face punishment. Notably, 19-year-old Dorsa Derakhshani, an International Master and Woman Grandmaster since 2016, was barred from the national team after refusing to wear a headscarf at the 2017 Gibraltar Chess Festival. She was then a temporary resident of Spain.
"Minutes before a match the deputy chairman of the federation would constantly whisper in my ear to be careful not to let my head cover to drop," Parisa Jahanfekrian, former weightlifting champion who is now living in Germany, told Iran International. Once in very warm weather he told me at least ten times to tuck my hair under my head cover only two minutes before the match.
"There, I was constantly thinking about the consequences if my head cover slipped back instead of thinking how to hold the halter and how to carryout my technic," she said.
It was agonizing to conform with all the dos and don'ts that were imposed on female athletes, Jahanfekrian told Iran International, adding that there would always be meetings before international competitions about hijab.
"They demanded that we always was wore a long tunic (called maanto in Iran) and a pullover headscarf with stitched front (called Maghna'e in Iran) when we left our rooms during our stay abroad.
Female athletes who defy hijab rules receive substantial support and are often hailed as heroes by the public. However, they also endure significant pressure from the authorities.
During the anti-government protests of the previous year, climber Elnaz Rekabi made a bold statement by discarding her hijab during the finals of a competition in South Korea, as an act of solidarity with the Woman, Life, Freedom protesters. She received a warm welcome upon her return to Iran after the competition.
Soon after, state media released a video interview with her at the airport arrival hall. In the interview, she referred to her decision to appear without a hijab as "inadvertent." Many speculated that her statements were made under the pressure of regime agents. Social media users criticized the regime's attempts to undermine her convictions, noting that their efforts had ultimately failed.
People on social media said the regime had tried “to break this brave woman,” force her to repudiate her own convictions, and discredit her among hundreds of thousands of young girls who admired her “but as always, they failed.”
The regime has since then been faced with the dilemma of whether to allow women's participation at international competitions and ignore their defiance or keep them home.
The rule is that arms must be always covered to the wrist and legs to the ankle. Roya Mahboodi, an Asian Women’s Arm-Wrestling champion told Etemad daily in June that a government official banned the sport for some period of time because the wrist and a part of the elbow could be seen during matches.
She recounted how wearing a shaal (normal rectangular scarf), which lets more hair to cascade around the face and in the back, was banned whereas maghna'e tightly frames the face and comes down to the chest. Shaal has been the head cover of choice for many Iranian women who do not believe in wearing hijab but have to abide by the hijab rules.
