Tehran, December 6 (December 6) – The Iranian judiciary opened a judicial file against officials and organizers of a marathon that was held on Friday on Kish Island in the south of the country and in which women without an Islamic veil participated, which the Regional Prosecutor’s Office considered a violation of religious laws and principles.
The Attorney General of Kish Island in the south of the country, Ali Salem Zadeh, said last night that, despite previous warnings, the race organizers “did not respect religious, social and professional laws and principles” in holding the race, in reference to the participation of women without the veil, according to Tasnim Agency.
Selimzadeh stressed that the development of the race “harmed public morals,” and for this reason he announced a “firm, deterrent and without leniency” reaction against all participants, including the local authorities in Kish. The Public Prosecutor stressed that the judiciary will act against any “negligence or failure to observe the rules.”
The marathon, which was held on Friday, included competitions of 5, 15 and 42 kilometers, and brought together more than 5,200 athletes in the men’s and women’s categories.
After photos of the competition were widely circulated on social media, conservative agencies such as Mehr and Tasnim described the test as a “cultural threat” and denounced the “unveiled presence” of female runners, demanding strict measures to avoid the recurrence of similar episodes.
The incident comes in the context of increasing pressure from conservative politicians to re-impose the wearing of the hijab, after many women stopped wearing it in the streets as a form of civil disobedience.
The movement began after the death of the young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody in September 2022, after she was arrested for not wearing the hijab properly, sparking months-long protests in the country chanting “Women, Life, Freedom,” which called for the end of the Islamic Republic and were put down with harsh repression that led to the deaths of about 500 people.
On Tuesday, 155 hard-line parliamentarians – out of a total of 290 – sent a letter to the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Eji, demanding a “stricter and more insistent” implementation of laws regarding the mandatory wearing of the Islamic hijab in the face of the increasing number of non-veiled women in society.
Two days later, the head of the Iranian judiciary announced that the current situation regarding the hijab “should not continue,” and noted that the intelligence services were responsible for identifying organized groups that “promote indecency and not wearing the hijab,” and that the police were also tasked with confronting “flagrant crimes.”
He pointed out that “in some cases the violation is clear: the person appears semi-naked or naked, and in such cases legal measures are taken.”
On the streets of the country, there is a clear relaxation of the strict rules of women’s clothing, with open hair without a veil, skirts and sleeveless shirts, after the government of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian stopped using a strong hand against women who do not wear the hijab.
Although Parliament approved the Chastity and Hijab Law last December, which sought to impose strict penalties on women who do not respect Islamic dress codes, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, headed by Pezeshkian, halted its implementation, considering that it would cause “unnecessary conflicts” in divided Iranian society. Evie