Images show how life for women in Iran became much harder after the attack on Israel: “They kicked where they could”

On April 13, Iran not only launched a series of drone strikes on Israel in response to the airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, but the government also kicked off the new campaign (Persian for light, ed.) off. This entails particularly strict action by the security forces against women who violate the draconian rules regarding wearing the hijab.

Assaulted

Not much later, the first video images emerged of women who did not sufficiently cover their heads in public – according to the infamous vice squad – and were dragged across the street by the police. Images distributed by human rights organizations, bloggers and victims also show women being beaten and treated very harshly. Among other The guardian and The Washington Post have collected numerous testimonies from victims in recent weeks. Many of them suffered injuries and denounced the actions of the police.

(read more below the images)

The story of Dina Ghalibaf, a university student from Tehran, also caused a stir when she wrote on X how she was accosted by police officers in a metro station. “They violently dragged me into a room and tasered me. Then they handcuffed me and assaulted me,” he said. She was arrested a day after that tweet and is now facing charges on those charges.

Blind

Another young woman from Tehran told The guardian how she was surrounded by eight police officers in a shopping street who started swearing at her. “Whore, they shouted. Naked America-loving slut also. Meanwhile, they kicked me in the legs, in the stomach and everywhere else. They don’t care where they hit you.” Many activists are calling for violence in Iran to be tackled. “I want the free world to hear the tragic stories of women being discriminated against on the basis of gender in Iran,” says Masih Alinejad, for example.

24-year-old artist Kosar Eftekhari has been blinded after an attack by security forces during a demonstration, and is calling on other victims to share more stories. “I have already been arrested eight times by the vice squad. I’m blind now, just because I didn’t want to cover my face.”

Mahsa Amini

It should be clear: the Iranian government is once again particularly repressive in its actions against women. In recent years, however, women’s rights in Iran have seemed to improve somewhat. This was the result of the massive protests in Iran and many other countries after images emerged of a very heavy-handed crackdown by the moral police that led to the death of Mahsa Amini.

According to experts, the Iranian government is taking advantage of growing fears about an escalating conflict in the Middle East to quietly roll back women’s achievements. All based on the idea of ​​nipping any form of civil disobedience in the bud. According to human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the officers are not going as hard as before, for fear of having another case that causes a lot of protest. “But they want to do the same thing, without causing friction,” says researcher Tara Sepehri Far The Washington Post.