DUBAI: Seemingly every afternoon in Iran’s capital, police vans rush to major Tehran squares and intersections to search for women with loose headscarves and those who dare not to wear them at all.
The renewed crackdown comes not quite two years since mass protests over the death Mahsa Amini after she was detained for not wearing a scarf to the authorities’ liking. A United Nations panel has found that the 22-year-old died as a result of “physical violence” wrought upon her by the state.
Amini’s death set off months of unrest that ended in a bloody crackdown, and for a time morality police disappeared from the streets. But now videos are emerging of women being physically forced into vans by police as lawmakers continue to push for harsher penalties. Meanwhile, authorities have seized thousands of cars over women having their hair uncovered while also targeting businesses that serve them.
The renewed hijab push, which police are calling the Noor — or “Light” — Plan, began before President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, and whoever wins a vote to replace the hard-line cleric on Friday will have an influence over just how intense it becomes — and how Iran responds to any further unrest.
“An intervention ... under the Noor Plan will take us into darkness,” reformist presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian recently told a group of female supporters
Enforcement began ramping up in April, with videos spreading online showing women having violent encounters with female enforcers dressed in the all-encompassing black chador alongside uniformed police officers.
While police haven’t published arrest numbers about the crackdown and media haven’t given it major attention, it’s widely discussed in Iran. But still, many women continue to wear their hijabs loosely or leave them draped around their shoulders while walking in Tehran.
On a recent afternoon in northern Tehran, women sat in cafes and other public places, as a police officer in his 50s told those passing by: “Please cover yourselves, ladies,” and then muttered audibly: “My God, I am fed up repeating this without getting any attention.”
“We know the police are not eager to fight women, but they are under pressure to,” said Fatemeh, a 34-year-old math teacher who gave only her first name for fear of reprisal. “Sooner or later, the authorities will realize that it would serve their interests better to pull back.”
Iran and neighboring Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are the only countries where the hijab remains mandatory. While women attend school, work and can manage their own lives in Iran, hard-liners insist that the hijab must be enforced.
The garment has long has been entwined with politics in Iran. Former ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi banned it in 1936, part of his efforts to mirror the West. The ban lasted only five years, but many middle and upper-class Iranian women chose not to wear it.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, some of the women who helped overthrow the shah embraced the even more conservative chador. But others protested a decision by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to order women to wear hijabs in public. In 1983, it became law, enforced with penalties including fines and up to two months in prison.
Amini’s death in September 2022 sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. But less than two years later, hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy have pressed forward with a crackdown.
The government’s insistence on enforcing the hijab also reflects its conspiratorial view of the world. Iran’s national police chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, has alleged without providing evidence that the country’s enemies plan to transform the nation’s culture by encouraging women to avoid the veil.
Already, “tens of thousands of women have had their cars arbitrarily confiscated as punishment for defying Iran’s veiling laws,” Amnesty International said in March. “Others have been prosecuted and sentenced to flogging or prison terms or faced other penalties such as fines or being forced to attend ‘morality’ classes.”
On Saturday, police said they would release some 8,000 vehicles held over women not wearing the hijab in them for the Eid Al-Ghadir holiday marked by Shiites.
There’s also been a push to close down businesses that serve women who aren’t wearing hijabs.
“The Islamic Republic is using the distraction of its presidential ‘election’ to go after its women activists and cow them into silence through imprisonment and abuse,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. The center said at least 12 women activists have been sentenced to prison since Raisi’s deaths for their work.
But there are signs that Iran’s government, and 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, know there are risks to escalating enforcement. A bill passed by Iran’s parliament that could impose 10-year prison sentences for hijab violations has yet to be approved by the country’s Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei.
So far among the presidential candidates, only Pezeshkian has criticized the hijab law. Others, including current parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, asked for the law to be implemented in a softer way. Candidate Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a Shiite cleric, criticized the use of violence against women, saying police should use “the language of trust and gratitude” rather than the baton.
Meanwhile, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, a prominent women’s rights activist, has issued a call from prison urging a boycott of the presidential vote, saying it only supports “a regime that believes in repression, terror and violence.”
At a recent Friday prayers in Tehran, women uniformly wore the chador while attending, as they always do.
“Every women should cover herself in veil, this is an order by Allah,” said Masoumeh Ahmadi, a 49-year-old housewife.
But even among the pious, there can be differences of opinion.
“Yes, it is an order by God, but it is not a must for all women as far as I have learned,” said Ahmadi’s 37-year-old friend, Zahra Kashani.
As Iran’s presidential vote looms, tensions boil over renewed headscarf crackdown
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As Iran’s presidential vote looms, tensions boil over renewed headscarf crackdown
- Videos are emerging of women being physically forced into vans by police as lawmakers continue to push for harsher penalties
- Authorities have seized thousands of cars over women having their hair uncovered
Syrian Kurdish commander demands accountability for those behind mass killings
- SDF leader accuses Turkiye-backed factions of being primarily behind the killings in the port city of Latakia
- Urges interim President Sharaa to “reconsider the method of forming the new Syrian army and the behavior of the armed factions”
QAMISHLI, Syria: The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria said on Sunday the country’s interim president must hold the perpetrators of communal violence in Syria’s coastal areas to account, accusing Turkiye-backed factions of being primarily behind the killings.
The head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, said in written comments to Reuters that Ahmed Al-Sharaa must intervene to halt “massacres,” adding factions “supported by Turkiye and Islamic extremists” were chiefly responsible.
Syrian security sources have said at least 200 of their members were killed in clashes with former army personnel owing allegiance to toppled leader Bashar Assad after coordinated attacks and ambushes on their forces on Thursday.
The attacks spiralled into a cycle of revenge killings when thousands of armed supporters of Syria’s new leaders from across the country descended to the coastal areas to support beleaguered forces of the new administration.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said on Saturday more than 1,000 people had been killed in the fighting.
The Syria Campaign and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which both advocated against Assad after the civil war began in 2011, said Saturday that both security forces and pro-Assad gunmen were “carrying out mass executions and systematic killings.”
Turkiye’s defense ministry declined to comment on Abdi’s remarks and the country’s foreign ministry was not immediately available to respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed groups clashed repeatedly throughout the nearly 14-year civil war and are still fighting in some parts of northern Syria.
Abdi called on Sharaa to “reconsider the method of forming the new Syrian army and the behavior of the armed factions,” saying some of them were exploiting their role in the army “to create sectarian conflicts and settle internal scores.”
Sharaa, who headed the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) faction that spearheaded the rebel offensive to oust Assad, was named interim president in January. Syria’s previous army was dissolved and rebel factions agreed to merge into a new national armed force.
Abdi said that he was in talks with Sharaa on incorporating his fighting force into the army.
(With Reuters & AP)
Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil war
- In their ambush, the pro-Assad Alawite gunmen overwhelmed government security forces and later took control of Qardaha, Assad’s hometown, as Damascus scrambled to bring in reinforcements
DAMASCUS: An ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad escalated into clashes that a war monitor estimates have killed more than 1,000 people over four days.
The attack Thursday near the port city of Latakia reopened the wounds of the country’s 13-year civil war and sparked the worst violence Syria has seen since December, when insurgents led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew Assad.
The counteroffensive against the Assad loyalists in the largely Alawite coastal region brought havoc to several cities and towns. Rights groups reported dozens of revenge killings resulting from Sunni militants targeting the minority Islamic sect, regardless of whether they were involved in the insurgency.
Here’s a look at the latest violence in the war-wracked country:
What started the violence?
Tensions have been on the rise since Assad’s downfall following sectarian attacks against Alawites, who ruled Syria for over 50 years under the Assad dynasty. The assaults continued despite promises from Syria’s interim president that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all its communities.
In their ambush, the pro-Assad Alawite gunmen overwhelmed government security forces and later took control of Qardaha, Assad’s hometown, as Damascus scrambled to bring in reinforcements.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Hassan Abdel-Ghani said Sunday that security forces have restored control of the region and will continue pursuing leaders of the galvanized insurgency.
But despite authorities calling for an end to the sectarian incitement, the clashes turned deadly, and many civilians were killed.
Who are the dead?
Most of the dead are apparently members of the Alawite community, who live largely in the country’s coastal province, including in the cities of Latakia and Tartous. Rights groups estimate that hundreds of civilians were killed.
The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam, and it once formed the core constituency of Assad’s government in the Sunni-majority country.
Opponents of Assad saw Syria under the family’s rule as granting privileges to the Alawite community. As the civil war intensified, militant groups emerged across the country and treated Alawites as affiliates of Assad and his key military allies, Russia and Iran.
Syria’s new interim government is under Sunni Islamist rule. Interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former HTS leader, has promised that the country will transition to a system that includes Syria’s mosaic of religious and ethnic groups under fair elections, but skeptics question whether that will actually happen.
Little is currently known about the Alawite insurgency, which is composed of remnants of Assad’s web of military and intelligence branches, and who their foreign backers might be.
Why were the Alawites targeted?
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 745 civilians killed, mostly in shootings. In addition, 125 members of government security forces and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. Electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around Latakia, the group added.
Meanwhile, the Syria Campaign and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which both advocated against Assad after the civil war began in 2011, said Saturday that both security forces and pro-Assad gunmen were “carrying out mass executions and systematic killings.”
The SNHR estimated that 100 members of the government’s security forces were killed Thursday, while 125 of an estimated 140 civilians were slain over the weekend in “suspected revenge killings.”
The Associated Press could not verify those numbers, and conflicting death figures during attacks in Syria over the years have not been uncommon. Two residents in the coastal region said that many homes from Alawite families were looted and set on fire. They spoke from their hideouts on condition of anonymity, fearing for their lives.
Damascus blamed “individual actions” for the widespread violence against civilians and said government security forces were responding to the gunmen loyal to the former government.
Can Damascus restore calm after the clashes?
Damascus has struggled to reconcile with skeptics of its Islamist government, as well as with Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast and the Druze minority in the south. Al-Sharaa has lobbied to convince the United States and Europe to lift sanctions to pave the way for economic recovery to pull millions of Syrians out of poverty and make the country viable again.
Washington and Europe are concerned that lifting sanctions before Syria transitions into an inclusive political system could pave the way for another chapter of autocratic rule.
Al-Sharaa appealed to Syrians and the international community in an address over the weekend, calling for accountability for anyone who harms civilians and mistreats prisoners. Such human rights violations were rampant under Assad. Al-Sharra also formed a committee composed mostly of judges to investigate the violence.
In a statement issued Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Syrian authorities to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres” accountable. Rubio said the US “stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities.”
OIC welcomes Syria’s reinstatement as member state
- Decision was approved during extraordinary session of the OIC Council of FMs, held in Jeddah
JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha on Sunday welcomed the reinstatement of the Syrian Arab Republic’s membership in the bloc, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
He called it a historic decision that reaffirmed the organization’s support for the Syrian people during a critical period in the country’s history, SPA added.
The decision was approved during the 20th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, held at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah on Friday.
The meeting primarily focused on addressing the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and calls for their displacement from their land.
Taha emphasized that Syria’s reinstatement was aimed at facilitating a peaceful and secure political transition that restores the country’s institutions, territorial integrity, and standing among nations.
He also reiterated the General Secretariat’s commitment to working closely with Syria in support of the OIC’s objectives and strengthening joint Islamic action.
Syria was suspended from the OIC in 2012 following the outbreak of a brutal civil war, with member states citing concerns over human rights violations and the conflict’s impact on regional stability.
Its return marks a significant diplomatic shift, reflecting renewed engagement between Damascus and regional actors.
The OIC, comprising 57 member states, has long played a role in addressing issues of mutual concern across the Muslim world, including conflict resolution and humanitarian support.
Shelling kills 7 in Sudan city retaken by army
- El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, comes under intense RSF bombardment
PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling on Sunday on a strategic city in Sudan’s south, where the army broke a prolonged siege last month, killed seven civilians and wounded nearly two dozen others, a medical source said.
El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, came under attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, at war with the army since April 2023, said the source at the city’s main hospital and several witnesses.
Witnesses reported intense bombardment by the RSF on Sunday, with one shell striking a public transport bus carrying passengers, on the third consecutive day of attacks from the north and east.
FASTFACT
Cholera was officially declared an outbreak on Aug. 12 last year by Sudan’s Health Ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22.
The hospital source said that the shelling killed seven people and wounded 23 others, all civilians.
Last month, the army broke a nearly two-year RSF siege on El-Obeid, which sits at a crucial crossroads connecting the capital Khartoum to the country’s western region of Darfur.
The RSF has captured nearly all of Darfur while the army controls the country’s north and east and recently won back large swathes of Khartoum and central Sudan.
The war, pitting army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted over 12 million, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
An international aid group, meanwhile, said nearly 100 people died of cholera in two weeks since the waterborne disease outbreak began in Sudan’s White Nile State,
Doctors Without Borders — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF — said that 2,700 people had contracted the disease since Feb. 20, including 92 people who died.
Of the admitted cholera patients who died, 18 were children, including five children who were no older than 5, and five others who were no older than 9, said Marta Cazarola, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan.
The Rapid Support Forces group launched intense attacks last month in the White Nile State that killed hundreds of civilians, including infants.
The Sudanese military announced at the time that it made advances there, cutting crucial supply routes to the RSF.
During the RSF attacks in the state on Feb. 16, the group fired a projectile that hit the Rabak power plant, causing a mass power outage and triggering the latest wave of cholera, according to MSF.
Subsequently, people in the area had to rely mainly on water obtained from donkey carts because water pumps were no longer operational.
“Attacks on critical infrastructure have long-term detrimental effects on the health of vulnerable communities,” said Marta Cazorla, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan.
The cholera outbreak in the state peaked between Feb. 20-24, when patients and their families rushed to Kosti Teaching Hospital, overwhelming the facility beyond its capacity, according to MSF.
Most patients were severely dehydrated. MSF provided 25 tonnes of logistical items such as beds and tents to Kosti to help absorb more cholera patients.
Cazarola said that numbers in the cholera treatment center were declining and at low levels until this latest outbreak.
The White Nile State Health Ministry responded to the outbreak by providing the community access to clean water and banning the use of donkey carts to transport water.
Health officials also administered a vaccination campaign when the outbreak began.
Cholera was officially declared an outbreak on Aug. 12 last year by Sudan’s Health Ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22.
Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises
- “Warships and combat and support vessels of the Chinese and Russian naval forces, as well as the warships of Iran’s naval forces of the army and the Revolutionary Guards,” are expected to participate, according to Tasnim
TEHRAN: The navies of Iran, Russia and China will hold military drills off the coast of Iran this week in a bid to boost cooperation, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
The three countries have held similar exercises in the region in recent years. The drills “will begin on Tuesday in the port of Chabahar,” located in southeast Iran on the Gulf of Oman, the Tasnim news agency said, without specifying their duration.
“Warships and combat and support vessels of the Chinese and Russian naval forces, as well as the warships of Iran’s naval forces of the army and the Revolutionary Guards,” are expected to participate, according to Tasnim.
FASTFACT
The drills will begin on Tuesday in the port of Chabahar, located in southeast Iran on the Gulf of Oman.
The exercises will take place “in the northern Indian Ocean” and aim to “strengthen security in the region and expand multilateral cooperation between participating countries,” Tasnim said.
China will deploy “a destroyer and a supply ship,” Beijing’s Defense Ministry said on the WeChat social media network.
In February, the Iranian army conducted drills in the same area to “strengthen defense capabilities against any threat.”
Azerbaijan, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sri Lanka are among the countries that will attend as observers.
