Women will be punished for violating Islamic dress code: Iranian Chief Justice

DUBAI, March 6

Women violating the Islamic dress code will be punished, Iran's Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Monday according to the official IRNA news agency, reaffirming the law after months of unrest that brought a deadly security crackdown.

Won’t let anyone harm public order

With the help of the judiciary and executive, the authorities will use all available means to deal with the people who cooperate with the enemy and commit this sin that harms public order. — Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, Iranian Chief justice

Students’ poisoning an unforgivable crime

The authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. If proven deliberate, the perpetrators of this unforgivable crime should be sentenced to capital punishment. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader

“Removing one's hijab is equivalent to showing enmity to the Islamic Republic and its values. People who engage in such an abnormal act will be punished,” Ejei said.

“With the help of the judiciary and executive, authorities will use all available means to deal with the people who cooperate with the enemy and commit this sin that harms public order,” he said.

The September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini while in police custody for flouting the dress code triggered nationwide protests that posed one of the toughest challenges to theocratic government since its establishment in 1979.

An increasingly severe crackdown by security forces has largely stifled the unrest in recent weeks.

On the issue of the poisoning of schoolgirls, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that it was an “unforgivable” crime which should be punished by death, the state TV reported, amid public anger over a wave of suspected attacks in schools.

Over 1,000 girls have suffered poisoning since November, according to state media and officials, with some politicians blaming religious groups opposed to girls’ education. The poisonings have come at a critical time for Iran's clerical rulers after months of protests since the death of a young woman held by the police for flouting hijab rules.

"The authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. If it is proven deliberate, those perpetrators of this unforgivable crime should be sentenced to capital punishment," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the state TV.

The poisonings began in November in the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Qom and spread to 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, prompting some parents to take children out of school and protest. Authorities have accused the Islamic Republic's “enemies” of using the attacks to undermine the clerical establishment. But suspicions have fallen on hardline groups operating as self-declared guardians of their interpretation of Islam.

In 2014, people took to the streets of the city of Isfahan after a wave of acid attacks, which appeared to be aimed at terrorising women who violated the strict Islamic dress code.

For the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, schoolgirls have been joining the protests that spiralled after Mahsa Amini's death in morality police custody. — Reuters

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