Human Rights Voices

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Iran, May 3, 2018

Female morality police in Iran drag a woman off the street and into their car

Original source

Daily Mail

This is the horrifying moment a woman in Iran is dragged off the street by the country's fierce 'morality police'.

In the clip, the woman can be seen grappling with an officer on the street in one of Tehran's student areas.

As the pair struggle, other police officers rush to assist their colleague, who is wearing a traditional hijab, before hauling the student off the street.

They shove her into the back of their unmarked car as she screams out for help from passers-by. 

The person who shot the harrowing footage late said: 'I'm a student on Amir Kabir University. This street is close to our university. The area itself is popular hangout place between girls and boys to socialise and to smoke.

'On my way back from university, I realised that the morality police was dealing heavy-handedly with boys and girls.

'When ordinary passers-by were drawing closer to the car of these policemen and policewomen, they faced threats of arrest and were told to mind their own business.'  

This is by no means the only case of brutal treatment by Iran's so-called 'morality police officers' however.

A young woman was recently assaulted by a gang of female police officers who deemed her headscarf 'insufficient' because it only loosely covered her hair.

Terrifying video showing her being savagely beaten was broadcast widely on social media - provoking an outpouring of public sympathy. 

In response to the violent attack, a brave woman posed next to a police car without her hijab while a whole family removed their headscarves in solidarity.

A growing number of Iranian woman have taken to the streets without the mandatory hijab in recent days after the video surfaced.

The video has reignited a public debate on the decades-long requirement for women in the Islamic Republic to wear hijabs.

Officials of all ranks up to President Hassan Rouhani have weighed in on the incident as women question being forced to wear the hijab in public.   

On Tuesday, advocacy group My Stealthy Freedom shared a picture of a young woman leaning against a police car without her hair covered.

'Welcome to the 46th week of #WhiteWednesdays!' the caption said.

My Stealthy Freedom, an online group campaigning against the forced hijab, highlights instances of abuse of women who choose not to wear it.

The group's founder Masih Alinejad launched the social media hashtag White Wednesdays, encouraging women to flout regulations posting pictures and videos of themselves without the hijabs online.

She also shared a clip sent to her from a family who posed with their backs to the camera, but with their hair uncovered.