Woman arrested for not wearing a hijab while being attacked by a man on street
A woman has been detained for not wearing a hijab while being harassed by a man in Iran’s capital of Tehran.
Footage circulating on X and seen by Metro shows a motorcyclist ambushing the victim on a street in the middle of the day.
She has been identified as Roshanak Molaei Alishah, a Turkish woman from Tabriz in the East Azerbaijan Province.
In a CCTV video, the 25-year-old is seen trying to push off her attacker from his bike, shouting at him and berating him for his actions.
What it also shows is that she was not wearing a head covering made mandatory as part of the Islamic Republic’s draconian laws dictating the lives of women and girls in the country.
Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Norway-based Kurdish NGO, revealed that Roshanak has since been detained by security forces, and her fate remains unknown.
She was previously also arrested and imprisoned for participating in the protests for the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement following the killing in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini.
Separately, the Center for Human Rights in Iran said that the victim was detained on November 3 after posting the video in which she confronted her harasser.
In the days to follow the video has been deleted while her account suspended.
Hengaw added that as of now, her family’s attempts to find out where she is have been unsuccessful.
A report cited by the NGO said Roshanak was previously arrested in Tehran on September 27, 2022, following a violent encounter during a protest for women’s rights.
‘Initially held in Evin Prison, she was subsequently transferred to Qarchak Varamin Prison,’ it said.
‘In December of that year, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to six years and six months on charges of “assembly and collusion.”
‘After nearly five months in detention, she was granted amnesty and released from Qarchak Varamin Prison on February 15, 2023.
Over the past two years, Roshanak Molaei Alishah has been summoned and interrogated multiple times by security agencies due to the content of her social media posts.’
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