Iranian authorities arrested “the two main organizers” of a marathon organized the day before in Kish (south of the country), in which women participated without veils, as required by the standards established after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
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“One of the arrested people is an employee of the Kish Free Zone and the other works for the private company that organized the race,” Mizan news agency reported, citing the judiciary.
These events coincide with a time when some authorities in the country are denouncing a growing lack of respect for the compulsory wearing of the veil.
According to local media, more than 5,000 people participated in the Kish marathon on Friday morning (5). Kish is a tourist island in southern Iran, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. In several women-only races, some runners participated without veils, violating a four-decade-old requirement in Iran, according to images circulating on social media.
Kish’s public prosecutor, quoted Friday evening by the legal news agency Mizan, said the event “goes against decency” and that legal action had been taken against the organizers.
The Tasnim news agency criticized “the total lack of control and non-compliance with dress codes by a significant number of participants.”
Under regulations imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all Iranian women must cover their hair with a hijab in public and wear modest, loose-fitting clothing. However, this requirement is increasingly flouted in Iran, where many women now go out in public without veils, some wearing revealing clothing.
This phenomenon, unimaginable a few years ago, seems to have become even more accentuated since the end of the war with Israel in June, particularly in the capital, Tehran. Religious and conservative leaders are outraged by what they see as widespread “nudity” and an advance of Western influence, seen as a threat.
The question of the veil divides the political class. President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government last year refused to pass a law that would have significantly increased sanctions against women who do not wear the veil.
However, this week, more than half of parliamentarians criticized the judiciary for failing to enforce the law. The head of the judiciary, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei, on Thursday reiterated his call for stricter enforcement of the law.