EXPLAINED | Iranian female comedian sentenced to two years in prison: Why the Hijab protests continue

In a recent development in Iran’s anti-Hijab protests, an Iranian court on Monday sentenced female Iranian comedian Zeinab Mousavi, who dared to criticise the archaic Islamic laws, for two years in prison.

The 33-year-old, who has nearly half-a-million followers on Instagram was arrested in October last year in Qoms and spent 25 days in solitary confinement before coming out on bail. However, she was handed a  two-year sentence in December, according to the Iranian NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The comedian had been using her online platform to criticise the imposition of hijab on Muslim women in Iran. Her online alias was the parody of an old villager wearing a hijab with only her nose visible — a satirical commentary on how women are supposed to be under the medieval rules imposed by the misogynistic patriarchal men in her society.

Clamping down dissent

The Iranian government has been quashing the voices of dissent in the country, giving death sentences and jail terms to anyone who dares to rise against the system. Recently, it was reported that in order to create fear as protests shake the country, Iranian authorities had executed 55 people this year, according to a Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR). It also added that a lack of reaction from the international community risked lowering “the political cost of executing protesters” and that at least 107 people are still at risk of execution over the demonstrations after being sentenced to death or charged with capital crimes. Death penalty too has seen an upward trend in the last few years with at least 504 people executed in Iran alone in 2022 while the actual figure was said to be more than double the number revealed.

Another recent Amnesty International report detailed the tortures three Iranian protestors had to withstand in prison, raising concerns over the country’s judicial system. The three men, out of the many who are facing the death penalty in Iran for participating in anti-regime protests, have been charged with “corruption on Earth” and “enmity against God”.

One of the men named Mehdi Mohammadifard, aged 19, was reportedly raped by prison guards and brutally beaten, according to the report. He sustained anal and rectal injuries. During his arrest in October last year, Mohammadifard was thrown to the floor due to which he suffered a broken nose.

In another incident, an Iranian couple — Astiyazh Haghighi (21) and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi (22), was sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for dancing in the streets in support of woman life freedom revolution in the country. Haghighi was seen without a head scarf in the video. Further, Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to five years in prison too, on charges of “propaganda against the system”.

No relaxation in laws

According to Iran’s ‘morality police’, wearing of a hijab is compulsory for women above age 9, under strict Islamic law. The law attracted ire and sparked nationwide protests after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody after sustaining fatal injuries on her head as she was detained by the morality police for not covering her head properly. However, despite global protests, Iran has not relaxed its archaic laws with Iran’s chief prosecutor directing the police to take action against those who do not adhere to the hijab rules and the Deputy Prosecutor-General Abulsamad Khorramabadi saying, “The crime of removing the hijab is one of the obvious crimes, and law enforcement officers are obliged to arrest the perpetrators of obvious crimes and introduce them to the judicial authorities for punishment”.

Surveillance has also increased in Iran with the police watching women in public without hijab closely.

With inputs from agencies

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