The Iranian judiciary disclosed that a woman received 74 lashes as a penalty for allegedly “violating public morals” and was additionally fined for failing to adhere to the head-covering order.
Roya Heshmati, the convicted individual, was accused of promoting permissiveness by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website for her inappropriate presence in crowded public spaces in Tehran, as reported on Saturday.
‘Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,’ and ‘for violating public morals,’ Mizan said.
Since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian law mandates that all women cover their neck and head, a requirement that remains in effect.
Instances of whippings for violating the dress code are infrequent in Iran; however, officials have intensified efforts to curb defiance of these regulations, especially following a surge in such incidents during the anti-government protests that commenced in late 2022.
The catalyst for the protests in September 2022 was the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
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During the protests, female demonstrators boldly cast off their headscarves, with some even resorting to burning them. Meanwhile, other women began to increasingly flout the dress code, prompting a crackdown.
Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw identified Heshmati as 33-year-old woman of Kurdish origins.
She was arrested in April ‘for publishing a photo on social media without wearing a headscarf,’ her lawyer Maziar Tatai told the reformist Shargh daily.
Tatai disclosed that in addition to the punishment, Heshmati was ordered to pay a fine of 12 million rials (roughly $25) for the violation of “not wearing the Muslim veil in public.”
Authorities, in a bid to monitor violations, have deployed surveillance cameras in public spaces, taking actions such as closing businesses found in breach of the established rules.
A bill addressing the reinforcement of penalties for individuals violating the dress code has been a topic of discussion within Iran’s parliament.