Eye on Iran's Protests - July 20, 2023

The Morality Police are stepping up enforcement of the mandatory hijab, a central facet of the Islamic Republic’s identity. Yet, Iranian women show no signs of letting up on their resistance against subjugation. This will mean more arrests, more arbitrary detainments and unfair court cases, more torture, and more death. Since the Woman, Life, Freedom movement sparked by the Morality Police’s killing of Mahsa Amini for improper hijab, over 500 people have been killed in connection to the movement, and countless others have been arrested and detained.

 This map shows the location of protests over the past two weeks. 

 

 In December 2022, UANI rejected media reports saying that Khamenei had disbanded the Morality Police in a concession to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. This week, the Morality Police resumed patrols to enforce Iran’s strict dress code. 

 

As the Morality Police step up their enforcement actions, new punishments have been implemented. A woman arrested for improper hijab was, for example, forced to wash dead women’s bodies in the central city of Varamin. 

 

 At least 60 female students in Iran have reportedly been barred from universities for flouting the country’s mandatory hijab law. 

 

Large crowds gathered outside the city hall of Rasht in northern Iran after security forces tried to arrest three women over improper hijab. 

 

 Regime forces allegedly tortured a political prisoner, Peyman Galvani, in Orumiyeh prison to death, sparking massive protests on the streets of Mahabad, Iran. 

 

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights published evidence that security authorities tortured Peyman Galvani to death, contrary to the Mahabad prosecutor's denial. 

 

Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to six years and three months in prison. The fact that he was not sentenced to death shows that the establishment likely fears the instability that such a step would produce. 

 

Regime forces raided the home of actor Mohammad Sadeghi and arrested him over his opposition to the violent enforcement of the mandatory hijab. He live-streamed the raid on Instagram while protesting the arbitrariness of the arrest. 

 

The Islamic Republic's security forces fired tear gas at and arrested several veterans of the Iran-Iraq war who had gathered in front of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs to protest financial hardship. 

 

On March 15, after four years and seven months in prison, activist Sepideh Qoliyan was released. The second she walked out, she cried out for the downfall of tyrant Ayatollah Khamenei. They jailed her again. She stayed in prison rather than submit. 

 

 Iran’s clerical rulers fear a nationwide revival of protests on the upcoming anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. 

 

The FC Barcelona soccer team landed in Los Angeles on a plane carrying the messages “No woman should be forced to cover her head” and “No man should be hanged for saying this.”