An Iranian woman received 74 lashes for “violating public morals” after she refused to wear a hijab.
Roya Heshmati, 33, was repeatedly hit with a leather whip in a “medieval torture chamber” after she refused to cover her hair whilst walking through the streets of Tehran.
She was also forced to pay a fine of 12 million rials (£255) for “encouraging permissiveness” with her behaviour.
Writing on her social media, Heshmati said was she violently lashed in a dark room but still refused to wear a veil after the ordeal.
All women in Iran have been required to cover their necks and hair since the 1979 Islamic Revolution
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She said: “[The lashing] was over. We left the room. I didn't let them think I had experienced pain… We went up to the judge in charge of execution of the sentence. The female agent walked behind me and was careful not to let my headscarf drop from my head.
“I threw off my scarf at the courtroom entrance. The woman asked me to wear the headscarf. I didn't stop and she pulled it over my head again,” she wrote.
Mazyar Tataei, Heshmati's lawyer, said that she was arrested in April “for publishing a photo on social media without wearing a headscarf” and charged for “not wearing the Muslim veil in public”.
Heshmati was detained by police who confiscated her phone and held her in detention for 11 days.
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He said that she was initially sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison, a 112,500,000 rials fine (£2,099) and 148 lashes.
This was later reduced to 12,500,000 rials (£255) and 74 lashes.
All women in Iran have been required to cover their necks and hair since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Her penalty of 74 strokes of the lash was carried out in accordance with the law and with sharia,” and “for violating public morals,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said on Saturday.
“The convicted … encouraged permissiveness [by appearing] disgracefully in busy public places in Tehran,” Mizan reported.
Since late 2022, officials have begun to clamp down on women breaking the dress code
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The judiciary also claimed the 33-year-old had ties to “an organised group outside Iran”, though they did not state who.
It was previously rare for women in Iran to be beaten or whipped for disobeying the dress code, however, as of 2022, officials have begun to clamp down.
In September 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd was arrested for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. She died in custody.
Her death triggered a wave of mass demonstrations, in which female protesters discarded or destroyed their headscarves.
Other women also began to break the strict dress code, which led to officials launching a hard clampdown.
