Latest news with #Gasht-eErshad
Al Jazeera
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Iran police disperse pro-hijab protest amid security concerns
Tehran, Iran – In a first, Iranian authorities have dispersed a demonstration calling for stricter implementation of the country's dress code rules. On Friday evening, after state-organised Quds Day rallies in support of the Palestinian cause ended, police dispersed dozens who had been camping out in front of the parliament for weeks. The demonstrators, mostly women clad in full-body black chadors, had been there for nearly 50 days to decry what they view as loose enforcement of mandatory hijab, which signifies the abandonment of 'Islamic values' to them. Women and men in Iran are bound by a law passed shortly after the country's 1979 revolution to adhere to strict dress codes – including a veil covering hair for women – on pain of prison, flogging, or financial penalties. For decades, Iranian authorities have enforced the mandatory hijab through patrols by police and security forces. The country's so-called 'morality police', known as 'Gasht-e Ershad' or Islamic guidance patrol, would round up people on the streets for 'undermining public decency' and put them in vans to be 're-educated' at designated centres or be punished through the courts. That is what happened to 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022, who was arrested in Tehran for alleged non-compliance with hijab laws while out with her family. She died in police custody, her death triggering nationwide protests for months. Hundreds of protesters and dozens of security forces were killed in the unrest, with authorities saying the United States, Israel, and other rivals were behind the 'riots'. The hijab has since become an increasingly hot-button topic. Iranian authorities announced they would suspend the morality police in late 2022, but the force's white vans soon made a comeback to the streets of Tehran and other major cities. Many more women and men have been arrested or had cases opened against them for dress code-related offences. This has ranged from average Iranians on the streets to journalists and veteran actresses who appeared unveiled in public, and businesses or even taxi drivers whose customers were deemed to be violating the law. Faced with increasing hijab-related 'crimes', especially in Tehran, where many women go out without a headscarf, Iranian authorities have been trying to implement new legislation that would boost their authority to crack down on offenders. A new hijab bill that defines heavy punishments, especially ramped-up financial penalties, was passed by Iran's conservative-dominated parliament in September 2023, under the administration of late President Ebrahim Raisi. It was then discussed in top state bodies many times, before finally being backed in September 2024 by the Guardian Council, the 12-member constitutional watchdog that has to greenlight legislation before it can be implemented. But President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has pledged to pursue mandatory hijab through non-confrontational methods like 'education', said his government would be incapable of enforcing the 'impractical' bill. After much speculation, conservative parliament chief and former military commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf finally confirmed in March that the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) had ordered the bill's implementation halted. The council agreed that the bill 'could cause tensions in today's society' in the aftermath of the 2022-23 protests, Ghalibaf told state media, adding that the government and parliament are working on finding ways of enforcing it in the future. In the meantime, as authorities battle a budget crunch under sanctions pressure from United States President Donald Trump, they have launched new efforts to crack down on hijab offences. They have set up cameras in public spaces to identify and punish unveiled women, allowed people to report others – and their vehicles, which could be impounded – for hijab offences without providing evidence, and imposed heavy fines or shuttered violating businesses. The dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of women demonstrating in front of the parliament have been making headlines for weeks. Some local media called them 'super-revolutionaries' due to their religious zeal, and they have garnered praise and support from ultraconservative factions within the Iranian establishment. They, along with several hardline legislators in parliament, have been accusing the parliament chief and the president of complacency over the enforcement of the hijab bill. They have described mandatory hijab as a tenet of Iran's theocratic establishment that 'enemies' wish to trample. But Tehran Governor Hossein Khosh-Eghbal said on Saturday that the demonstrations were 'illegal' and warned that police would disperse any further protests held without permits. He did not mention why the demonstrations were tolerated for weeks, or comment on claims, including by conservative legislator Javad Nikbin, that the demonstrators were paid to be there and had been bused in. Police confirmed that many of the women had travelled from the holy Shia city of Qom, some 150km (90 miles) south of Tehran. They also broadcast a short video via state media that showed their officers trying to reason with the shouting protesters and explain why they must disperse by law before taking action. In a viral video filmed by one of the protesters and circulated online, the woman behind the camera can be heard screaming and saying 400 male and female officers descended on them, put them in vans and dropped them in different parts of Tehran to disperse them. The woman showed another chador-clad woman lying on the ground with a bloody face, claiming demonstrators were beaten. The state-run Fars news agency reported that police used 'physical means' to end the protests and left demonstrators on the outskirts of the city in the middle of the night. Police said the video was 'staged' in an attempt to influence public sentiment, and that the wounds were self-inflicted. Politicians with the Paydari (Steadfastness) Front, the ultraconservative faction whose presidential candidate Saeed Jalili was defeated in elections last year, have been lambasting the decision. Hamid Rasaei, a top hardline legislator with the faction, said whoever decided to disperse the protesters did it 'either out of foolishness or due to infiltration'.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani Returns to L.A. for The 2025 Farhang Foundation Nowruz Celebration
Mahdieh Mohammadkhani never wanted to leave Iran. It's the country where she grew up, and where her family and friends remain, but her artistry and desire for freedom was something she was unable to fully express in her a musician, Mohammadkhani faced restrictions in Iran. Under the conservative religious government, Iranian women are only able to sing in public if they're part of a choir, or as solo artists for female-only audiences."I never had any permission to perform in the country, and all my performances were always outside of Iran," she this, Mohammadkhani is a globally acclaimed classical Iranian singer."I've always wanted to stay in Iran, even with all the restrictions that were imposed on me as an artist," Mohammadkhani tells me. "But I have [left] because of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement and the Mahsa Amini incident."She's talking about the 2022 tragedy when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in custody of Iran's morality police (the Gasht-e Ershad) after she was detained for not wearing her hijab properly (as part of the mandatory Islamic dress code). Following Amini's death, the country fought back and protests rang all throughout the region and the movement quickly grew under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom."Mohammadkhani's global performances have only recently resumed because as punishment for her support of "Woman, Life, Freedom," her passport was confiscated and she was stuck in Iran until January 2024. "Over the last few years [in Iran] I was also forbidden to work, even as a [music] instructor, and I was forbidden to leave the country to go and perform outside of Iran," she feminists have been protesting and organizing against the conservative religious rule since its theocratic government was established in 1979, but the government has continued to rule. Amini's death gained global recognition and it became the largest act of protest since the 1979 revolution. This series of protests in Iran left close to 20,000 people arrested and more than 500 dead, as reported by the Human Rights Mohammadkhani's travel ban was lifted, she fled to Dubai, where she currently resides."In picking a country for exile, I selected a country that is closest to my homeland. And in a way, I feel like I still have connections to Iran through the Persian Gulf. I feel my roots there," Mohammadkhani living in Dubai, Mohammadkhani has resumed performing and is "determined to focus on [her] career and expand [her] recordings and live performances," she says. As part of her return, the Iranian singer has come to the United States for the first time in over a decade to perform at the Farhang Foundation's Nowruz concert at Royce Hall UCLA on Sunday, March 9. The concert is part of the Foundation's annual Iranian New Year Celebration in L.A., which begins with a day-long Nowruz festival."Our sole mission is to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture for the benefit of the global community," says Alireza Ardekani, the CEO of the Farhang Foundation. The Farhang Foundation is a non-political, non-religious, and not-for-profit organization that was founded in 2008 by a group of philanthropists in Southern California."The reason the organization was established was because our founders felt that what the general [public] sees about or hears about Iran is what they see on the news, and specifically, what the current government of Iran is doing," he says. "All the beauty of our culture, our history, our poetry, our every contribution that Iran and Iranians have made to the world over centuries was really simply forgotten."The California-based organization is one of the largest Iranian cultural and arts organizations in the world—globally, they reach over 8.1 million people. This year's free day-long Nowruz festival will begin at 12 p.m. at UCLA's campus. The 6 p.m. concert following the festival will be held at Royce Hall and features Mahdieh Mohammadkhani, Cameron Shahbazi, and The Iranshahr Orchestra."We invite everyone to come and celebrate Nowruz because Noruz is a festival that you don't have to be Iranian to celebrate," Ardekani says. "It's a celebration of mother nature, spring, rebirth, and just the beauty of nature." Plan Your Perfect Weekend! Get the best events, dining, and activities around Los Angeles delivered to your inbox. Sign up for Los Angeles Magazine's Weekend Guide below or by clicking here.
