Iran: Regime will increase strain on ladies and protest motion | EUROtoday

The regime in Iran had pushed the protest motion off the streets. Now controls are getting harder once more. This is proven by the loss of life sentence in opposition to a rapper and the potential new scarf legislation.

The Iranian regime is growing its strain on the protest motion within the nation. This is proven by the loss of life sentence in opposition to the Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi. His music is darkish and stuffed with anger. In doing so, he expresses the sensation of many younger Iranians. The regime is aware of this too. He assaults this overtly in his songs and sings about its finish.

But critics see final week's loss of life sentence in opposition to him as extra than simply punishment for this. It ought to ship the sign to the younger protest motion: We don't shrink back out of your idols. Resistance won’t be tolerated. Not even relating to forcing ladies to put on the scarf once more.

Women ought to put on chador

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mentioned earlier this month: “According to Islamic jurisprudence and from a religious perspective, women must cover their entire body except the palms and face.” You shouldn't neglect this.

So Khamenei goes even additional. He needs to drive the ladies underneath the chador, the lengthy black fabric that reaches from the top to the bottom.

Dangerous controls

Narges is among the ladies who took to the streets after the loss of life of Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022, in fact with no scarf. Until lately, the mid-30-year-old was touring round Tehran with out one, for instance on the way in which to yoga. “Then they asked me to put on the headscarf and warned me because I was traveling without one.”

In the previous, it was potential to flee such conditions by ignoring such requests. She then merely walked away rapidly. “This time I heard the heavy footsteps behind me,” says the younger girl as she sits in her workplace

She has blue-red-purple coloured hair. The window is open. The birds are chirping exterior. But the peaceable environment is misleading. Narges really has a special identify. She is nervous and doesn't really feel protected in her workplace in Tehran as she continues: “Suddenly there were four or five police officers there. I quickly put my scarf on.”

The policewomen wore a black chador and took pictures of her. They ordered her to go to a police minibus. Narges nearly needed to try this. “Then I changed my mind and asked: 'Why should I? Now I wear a headscarf'.”

Dreaded minibuses

She hasn't fully misplaced her braveness to protest but. In this case it pays off. She briefly mentioned issues with the officers. They inform Narges that she shouldn't exit with no scarf anymore. Then she will transfer on.

In different circumstances, the ethical police drive ladies onto their minibuses. This feared image of the loss of life of Jina Mahsa Amini has been again on the streets of Iran for simply over two weeks. A brand new wave of scarf controls is underway. The United Nations human rights workplace in Geneva reviews that Iranian police have arrested many ladies and women.

“It's all torture”

At Café Farance in Tehran, the workers additionally serves ladies with out headscarves. At least till ten days in the past. Regular visitor Ali says in a hidden nook that he was there when the police sealed the café: “It was the first time here in the café since the Iranian New Year in March. But it was also once or twice last year to.” The café has been round for greater than 60 years. “Here was Vida Movahed standing on an electrical box with her white headscarf tied to a stick. It's all torture,” says Ali.

The picture of the younger girl went all over the world in 2017, her silent protest. Today – six and a half years later – ladies are as soon as once more getting their espresso at Farance sporting headscarves. Loose clothes, no scarf, that was nonetheless their on a regular basis protest for months after the regime had violently suppressed the rebellion on the streets and smothered them with executions. But the regime additionally needs to remove what little freedom they’ve, critics say. It's about placing the younger technology of their place, instructing them worry, breaking them.

New scarf legislation: harder penalties

One instrument is the brand new scarf legislation. After an extended dispute, it might quickly come into drive. The ladies then face even harsher punishments: for instance, as much as 15 years in jail, 1000’s of euros in fines, and a years-long skilled ban for celebrities.

An Iranian human rights group reviews a brand new wave of executions, allegedly for drug-related offenses. The regime is seemingly benefiting from the truth that the world is at present centered on the battle in Gaza and Iran's battle with Israel.

Rapper Toomaj Salehi sings about how hair blowing within the wind is a criminal offense in Iran. His lawyer needs to problem the loss of life sentence and thus save Salehi's life.