Iranian students protest mandatory headscarf rule

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Iranian students protest mandatory headscarf rule

Associated Press | Monday, May 13, 2019 9:53 a.m.

Women make their way on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran. A grainy video of female officers from Iran’s morality police assaulting a young woman whose headscarf only loosely covered her hair has sparked a new public debate on the decades-long requirement for women in the Islamic Republic.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency says university students have held a campus protest against authorities’ increasing pressure on women to wear mandatory headscarves in public.

The report says the students — both men and women — briefly scuffled with another group of Tehran University students who support the country’s conservative dress code.

The headscarf, or hijab, is required in public for all women in Iran. Those who violate the rules are usually sentenced to two months in prison or less and fined around $25.

ISNA reported in May that a prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was sentenced to seven years in prison after defending anti-hijab protesters.

Iranian authorities have adopted a tougher approach toward such protests since 2017, after dozens of women publicly took off their headscarves.

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