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An Iranian woman straightens her headscarf: For women, the covering is mandatory in the country
Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto / IMAGO
It was supposed to be a romantic moment, but now it serves as a demonstration of power for the Iranian authorities: A man asks for his girlfriend's hand in marriage at a well-known cultural site. Video footage later shows that the woman is violating the headscarf requirement. The video now has personnel consequences.
The photographs were taken in the cultural metropolis of Shiraz at the grave of the Persian writer Hafez. They show the man kneeling in front of his partner and asking her to marry him.
As a result of the scene, the province of Fars has now suspended its tourism director, as the state broadcaster IRIB reported on Monday evening. Two people in charge of the memorial were dismissed.
Hafez is revered in Iran as a poet and national hero. His poems are also internationally known. The park in Shiraz is visited by millions of tourists every year. The authorities justified the suspension and dismissals with violations of Islamic values. In addition, legal action has been taken.
Since the protests against the spiritual and political leadership of the Islamic Republic in autumn, more and more Iranian women have ignored the compulsory headscarf in public. The state is trying to identify and punish the violations by video surveillance. A penal reform is to follow.
The demonstrations were triggered by the death of the young Kurdish Jina Mahsa Amini in mid-September. She had been forcibly arrested by morality guards and later died in police custody.
Another journalist in front of the Revolutionary Court
The Iranian judiciary is also taking action against female journalists who made the Amini case public. On Tuesday, reporter Nilufar Hamedi of the newspaper »Shargh« had to appear at a trial before a revolutionary court in the capital Tehran, as her husband Mohammed Hussein Adjarlu reported on Twitter.
The 30-year-old Hamedi was arrested more than eight months ago at the beginning of the protests against the leadership of the Islamic Republic. The trial against the journalist Elaheh Mohammadi of the newspaper »Hammihan« had only begun on Monday.
The two women were among the first to report on the death of young Amini last fall. They are accused of cooperation with foreign intelligence services, as well as propaganda against the state. Their newspapers vehemently deny the allegations. Hamedi also defended herself in court against the accusations, as her husband reported. The trials are not public.
asc/dpa