Khamenei’s representatives’ threats pave the way for the brutal repression of women
In a meeting with the Armed Forces General Command Deputy for Intelligence and security, and the head of Isfahan’s State Security Force (SSF), on Friday, October 2, the cleric Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad, Khamenei’s representative in Isfahan, threatened the women by boasting, “We should make the society unsafe for the few (mal-veiling women) and not allow them to break the norms in the streets and parks easily… The SSF should be given more authority in dealing with those breaking the law and the norms. We should not be afraid of any hostile action in dealing with the violators.” He said, “The judges must be positively disposed towards those enjoining good and prohibiting vice.”
Tabatabai-Nejad is one of the criminals whose statements against “mal-veiling” led to the suppression of, and spraying acid on, girls and women in Isfahan. None of the perpetrators were brought to justice.
Meanwhile, cleric Abolghasem Yaghoubi, regime’s Friday prayer leader and Khamenei’s representative in North Khorasan, said, “Law enforcement forces must make the lives of rioters who have evil intentions unsafe… Mal-veiling or the refusal to wear a veil act like a virus in society, and we must confront those who do that… In addition to the engagement of the SSF and the judiciary in combatting mal veiling, the people must also get involved and enjoin good and forbid evil. We must also be sensitive to other viruses and not just the Coronavirus.”
In another inhuman act, the clerical regime’s “moral security” police have summoned the owners of many cars by texting them warrants for “mal veiling” or “not wearing the veil” in the past several weeks.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) views the threats by Khamenei’s criminal representatives that have aroused popular outrage, another pretext to further repress Iranian women and girls, It urges the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Human Rights Council as well as all women’s rights and human rights organizations to condemn these repressive measures and to support the struggle of Iranian women for freedom and equality.
Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 4, 2020