Iran: another woman killed by hijab police

On 1 October a 16 year-old school student, Armita Garavand, was attacked by officers from Iran’s notorious “morality police” as she entered a Tehran metro station with two friends.

Armita was accused of not wearing the mandatory hijab. She was badly injured during the assault and has since died from her injuries.

The Iranian state, recognising the similarity between this attack and the murder by the morality police, in September 2022, of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, has done everything possible to restrict access to information about the attack on Armita Garavand.

Mass, widespread protests against Iranian-state misogyny took place following the killing of Jina Amini, leading to the deaths of over 550 protesters, the arrest of 22,000 people and the execution of seven young men alleged to have taken part in the protest movement.

Armita’s two friends who witnessed the attack have been bullied into making statements on camera saying there was “no incident”.

Garavand’s mother, Shahin Amadi, was detained by security forces on 5 October. Armita’s parents have been forced to sign a document saying they will not file a complaint against “any individual [or] organisation.”

Video footage from the metro train has been seized. According to the teachers’ trade union, CCITTA, a senior security official from the Directorate of Education has visited Armita’s school and told teachers that they will be sacked if they speak to the media. School friends have been threatened that even positing photos of Armita on internet pages will result in heavy fines.

The “Woman, Life, Freedom” street protest movement that rose up after Jina Amini’s killing has been very heavily repressed, and the theocratic, fascistic Iranian state is attempting to reassert control over the population and enforce mandatory “modest” dress codes for women. Since 1981 it has been compulsory in Iran for women and girls over the age of nine to wear a hijab. Currently the penalty for not wearing a hijab is up to 10 days in jail or a fine of up to the equivalent of $10.

A new law, the Hijab and Chastity Bill, was agreed by Iran’s pseudo-Parliament, 152 votes to 34, on 20 September. The Bill increases penalties for not wearing a hijab to a maximum fine of $7,300 and a jail term of up to 10 years. Last week the Guardian Council, which vets legislation for adherence to the state’s religious dogma, rejected the bill, demanding that the text be reviewed to make the law watertight and less ambiguous.

Press freedom

On 24 October the “reformist” Shargh daily newspaper reported that 84% of over 12,000 respondents to its poll on the hijab are opposed to the mandatory dress code and headscarves. The newspaper’s editor has been summoned by a court for printing its findings and the story has been removed from the paper’s website.

Journalists have often been victims of Iranian state persecution. On 22 October two journalists who were the first to closely investigate the killing of Jina Amini, Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, received long jail sentences from a “revolutionary” court. The women were accused of collaborating with America and “propaganda activity against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Mohammadi was sentenced to six years in jail, and Hamedi to seven years.

Workers in Iran are also suffering from an acute economic crisis. Despite repression workers continue to protest and strike. Throughout October workers in the important oil and petrochemical industries in south east Iran have staged demonstrations and taken industrial action against non-payment of wages, ending of bonus payments, for the return of large tax deductions and against low pay.

It is probable that these strikes are still spreading.