muslim hate of western dress codes

Iran gives three women 55 years in prison for defying Islamic dress code

The Jerusalem Post

August 4, 2019

They have been convicted of charges stemming from a video taken on International Women's Day that was widely shared on social media in March showing them without headscarves.

Monireh Arabshahi, Yasamin Aryani, and Mojgan Keshavarz, three women who have been held in Iranian custody since April of this year for "disrespecting compulsory hijab," have been sentenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Court to prison terms of at least 16 years each for disobeying the country's Islamic dress code.

The women were each given five years on charges of "assembly and collusion to act against national security," one year for circulating "propaganda against the regime" and ten years for "encouraging and preparing the grounds for corruption and prostitution." In addition, Keshavarz received another seven-and-a-half years for "insulting the sanctities" - a total of 55 years and six months.

In Iran, shorter sentences are normally assigned for extensive prison terms – similar to how parole works in the United States, where long prison terms are given, but sometimes with the eligibility for parole after a certain amount of time. These shorter sentences in Iran average about half of the original term.

The women were delivered the verdicts in the absence of their legal counsel, according to the Iran Human Rights Monitor; legal counsel was also denied during certain stages of the indictment process, interrogations and even during the trial itself.

The global human rights organization Amnesty International condemned the arbitrary detainment of the three women and their denied access to legal counsel in an open letter to Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raisi, earlier last month.

In addition, the monitor claimed that when Judge Mohammad Moqisseh initially presented the charges, he "abusively" stated to the women, "I will make you all suffer.” Qarchak, the prison where they are currently being held, is known to be one of the country's more menacing prisons due to "inhumane medical and psychological conditions." The facility – which was once used as a chicken farm – is now considered to be one of the largest and most dangerous prisons for women in Iran by many human rights organizations.

The charges against the women stem from a video that was widely shared on social media in March, which was taken on International Women's Day. The video shows Arabshahi, Aryani and Keshavarz without their headscarves, disseminating flowers to women on the metro in Tehran while discussing their views on the future of women's rights in Iran.

In the video, Aryani hands a flower to a woman wearing a hijab and says: "one day I hope we can walk side by side in the street, me without the hijab and you with the hijab."

Subsequently following the video's release, Aryani was arrested by Iranian security officials at her home in Tehran, on April 10. The following day her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, was arrested after going to Vozara detention center in Tehran to inquire about her daughter's arrest. Keshavarz herself, was arrested "by force" on April 25 at her family home in front of her nine-year-old daughter.

"Their prosecution is part of a wider crackdown on women’s rights defenders campaigning against forced veiling laws.

"This movement includes White Wednesdays, a popular campaign which urges women to share pictures and videos of themselves on social media every Wednesday, wearing white headscarves or white pieces of clothing in protest of compulsory veiling; My Stealthy Freedom, which encourages women from Iran to post online pictures of themselves without headscarves [to show opposition to] forced veiling; and My Camera My Weapon, which aims to raise awareness of the constant harassment and assault that women and girls face in Iran’s streets as a result of forced veiling laws," said Amnesty.

Dozens of women activists as well as a few men have been arrested in relation to this "crackdown."

Just last week, 70 female cyclists were arrested in Tehran for violating the rules of "chastity and hijab."

IN A SIMILAR case a year ago, Azam Jangravi took off her hijab and waved it above her head while standing atop an electrical transformer in a busy Tehran square. It was an act of protest to denounce Iran’s strict Islamic laws that restrict women and general life in Iran, limiting her ability to live freely within her own country.

A crowd formed, and people shouted at her to come down. She knew all along that her arrest was imminent, but she went through with her plan anyway.

Her actions earned Jangravi a three-year prison sentence.

“I kept telling myself, ‘You can do this, you can do this,’” Jangravi recalled in an interview, carried by Reuters. “I was feeling a very special kind of power. It was as if I was not the secondary gender anymore.”

Even with the very real possibility of going to prison, Jangravi believed that going through with her protest would create a better world to live in for her daughter, who is now eight years old.

“I was telling myself, ‘Viana should not grow up in the same conditions in this country that you grew up in,’” she said. “[My mother] told me that the revolution caused a great deal of sexism, and they separated men and women.” Jangravi wanted a different fate for her daughter.

Her inspiration to go through with the protests came after two women activists were arrested on the same street for similar offenses.

“Throughout 2018, the Iranian authorities waged a particularly sinister crackdown against women’s-rights defenders,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa research and advocacy director at Amnesty International. “Instead of cruelly punishing women for demanding their rights, the authorities should put an end to the rampant and entrenched discrimination and violence they face.”

After her protest, Jangravi was arrested, fired from her job at a research institute and sentenced to three years in prison for promoting indecency and willfully breaking Islamic law.

Authorities also threatened to take Jangravi’s daughter away from her.

Since Iran’s Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, women have been forced to cover their hair for the sake of modesty. Violators are publicly admonished, fined or arrested. There are also instructions for women clerks in many Tehran shopping centers to wear "the Maghna'eh" instead of a simple hijab, or face the possible consequence of having their business shut down.

In July, it was reported by ILNA, an Iranian state-run news agency, that Iran had notified and warned 66,000 drivers in the Gilan Province via text message that female passengers in the targeted vehicles had dropped their veils at some point during the car-ride.

Jangravi was one of at least 39 women arrested last year in connection with hijab protests, according to Amnesty, which said another 55 people were detained for their work on women’s rights, including women who tried to enter football stadiums illegally and lawyers advocating for women.

Before her sentence was scheduled to begin Jangravi decided to flee the country, accompanied by her daughter, by employing the skills of a human-smuggler.

“I found a human-smuggler with a lot of difficulty. It all happened very quickly, I left my life, my house, my car behind,” she said.

Jangravi is not the first protester to voice an opinion on the “forced hijab laws.” Last year, many women took their peaceful protest against the strict dress code to the streets, holding their hijabs aloft high above the crowds for all to see.

Male and female protesters have been taking part in the “White Wednesday” protests, inviting both sexes to wear hijabs, veils and bracelets in solidarity with those who feel the law is discriminatory and unethical. “White Wednesday” is also for women who choose to wear their hijabs and veils, but reject the notion that all women should be forced to conform to wearing them in public.

“What the last year has shown is that people in Iran, especially women, are no longer afraid to go out and protest, whether in large numbers or through lone acts of protest,” said Amnesty International’s Iran researcher Mansoureh Mills. “As the authorities try to clamp down on these peaceful acts of resistance, we are likely to see more and more women and men being arrested, detained and prosecuted for demanding their rights.”

Jangravi’s desperate attempt to leave the country after her arrest could easily be justified by reports from Amnesty of brutal treatment by Iranian prison guards.

According to the organization, protesters face “bitter backlash from the authorities, facing violent assault, arrest and torture and other ill-treatment. Some were sentenced to prison terms after grossly unfair trials.”

Amnesty cited the case of Shaparak Shajarizadeh, who “was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 18 of which were suspended, for her peaceful protest against forced hijab. She fled Iran after she was released on bail and has since described in media interviews how she was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in solitary confinement and denied access to her lawyer.”

It also noted that, “Nasrin Sotoudeh, the prominent human rights lawyer and women’s rights defender who represented Shaparak Shajarizadeh, was herself arrested on 13 June 2018 for defending protesters against forced hijab.”

Iran’s economy has faced instability recently, with the national currency, the rial, fluctuating in value, making it difficult for many Iranians to make ends meet.

Sporadic protests linked to the tough economic situation have been led by truck drivers, farmers, workers, merchants and teachers, occasionally resulting in violent confrontations with security forces.

“The Iranian authorities carried out a shameless campaign of repression during 2018, crushing protests and arresting thousands in a wide-scale crackdown on dissent,” Amnesty said. “Over the course of the year, more than 7,000 protesters, students, journalists, environmental activists, workers and human rights defenders – including lawyers, women’s rights activists, minority rights activists and trade unionists – were arrested, many arbitrarily.”

Iran’s economy has been particularly hard hit by US sanctions that were reimposed November 5, after the United States withdrew from the 2016 Iran nuclear deal in May.

Many of these workers were arrested, and some were threatened with the death penalty, for demanding better working conditions and higher wages.

“From underpaid teachers to factory workers struggling to feed their families, those who have dared to demand their rights in Iran today have paid a heavy price. Instead of ensuring workers’ demands are heard, the authorities have responded with heavy handedness, mass arrests and repression,” Amnesty’s Luther said.

Jangravi is now awaiting approval on a request for asylum from an undisclosed location outside of Iran.

“Of course we don’t expect everyone to climb up the platform in Revolution Street,” she said. “But this made our voices heard by the entire world. What we girls did made this movement into something that continues.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Counter terrorism police investigate fears of a 'Trojan Horse-style' plot at a primary school where the headteacher is forced to work from home because of threats from Muslim parents

•    Trish O'Donnell, of Clarksfield Primary School in Oldham, has been threatened
•    She has endured 'harassment and intimidation' by conservative Muslim parents
•    It is feared they are making a 'Trojan Horse' attempt to Islamicise the school
•    Furious parents have complained that the way she dresses is 'unsuitable'

By Charlie Moore For Mailonline
19 February 2017

Counter-terrorism police are investigating claims a primary school headteacher has been forced to work from home after death threats from Muslim parents who hate her western values.

Trish O'Donnell, head of Clarksfield Primary School in Oldham, has endured 'harassment and intimidation' in the form of 'aggressive verbal abuse' and 'threats to blow up her car' from parents pushing conservative Muslim ideals.

It is feared they are making a 'Trojan Horse' attempt to Islamicise the school.

Parents have complained the way she dresses is 'unsuitable' and that pictures of her daughters in her office are 'offensive'.

The school is mostly filled with Pakistani pupils who do not speak English as a first language. A section of its website titled British values only read: 'coming soon'.

Since becoming head in 2006, Mrs O'Donnell has taken the school Ofsted rating from needing improvement to good.

But now she feels her position is untenable due to the pressure from Muslim parents trying to change the school from within and may be working from home.

Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, said the duty placed on teachers to carry out the Government's counter-terrorism Prevent strategy was 'fraught with difficulties.'

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News she said: 'I understand that investigations into harassment of the headteacher at Clarksfield Primary School have been undertaken by Oldham Council and also Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

'I also understand that allegations that this amounted to a 'Trojan horse' plot have been investigated by Oldham Council, linking in with GMP's Counter Terrorism Unit, and the Department for Education's Compliance Unit, who concluded that there was no evidence to support this claim.

'We must, of course, be vigilant to any issues that could conflate community tensions.

'This is why, along with the council, other Oldham MPs, organisations and leaders, we continually work across our diverse communities whilst tackling underlying inequalities which ultimately fuel these tensions.

'Unfortunately the new Prevent duty placed on educators to report people at risk of radicalisation is fraught with difficulties.'

A GMP spokesman said: 'GMP has received information obtained by partners regarding a school in Oldham. We have passed on information to the relevant authorities which are looking into the matter.'

According to an Oldham council report, seen by The Sunday Times, she wrote that she had a 'very strong reasons to believe that . . . a 'Trojan Horse' agenda [is] being played out'.

And the head teachers' union, the NAHT, said it was 'supporting a number of members in the Oldham area with a variety of apparent Trojan Horse issues'.

The council report says the school's 2013 parent-governor Nasim Ashraf hosted 'Islamic teaching sessions' at the school while his wife, Hafizan Zaman, 'made remarks to Asian staff members that they should be wearing a veil and covering their heads'.

They took exception to Hindi music being played in class, were angered by sex education and were accused of intimidating staff and undermining the headteacher.

The report said they tried to mobilise parents to 'secure changes at the school to reflect their interpretation of Islam' but did not suggest they were involved in the violent threats.

Ashraf's sister Shasta Khan is serving eight years in jail for plotting to attack Jews in Manchester.

She's friends on Facebook with Tahir Alam, the architect of a similar 'Trojan Horse' plot on several schools in Birmingham in 2014.

In the plot activists launched a campaign to oust headteachers using dirty tricks such as spreading false allegations and packing governing bodies with their supporters.

Tahir Alam and Razwan Faraz were part of the 'Park View Brotherhood' of teachers, which exchanged some 3,000 messages in a WhatsApp group, including offensive comments about British soldiers, the Boston Marathon bombings and the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

Mr Faraz, a former deputy headteacher of the Trojan-Horse linked Nansen Primary School, is under an interim teaching ban, while Mr Alam was banned from any involvement with schools by the Department for Education (DfE).

Clarksfield Primary's Chairman of Governors Saima Kausar and Mrs O'Donnell declined to comment.

Ashraf denied any Trojan Horse plot but said he wanted to remove Mrs O'Donnell because the school was failing.

A spokesman for Oldham council, cabinet member for education Amanda Chadderton, said: 'We take any allegations about our schools very seriously. The report into an Oldham primary school found no basis to the 'Trojan Horse' allegations.'

Girl loses legal bid to wear full Islamic dress in school

By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent

Published: 23 March 2006

A Muslim girl has lost her three-year legal battle to wear full Islamic dress in class after the House of Lords upheld the headteacher's right to exclude pupils who refuse to comply with school uniform policy on religious grounds.

The law lords' ruling overturns an earlier decision that Shabina Begum's human rights had been violated when her school banned her from wearing a head-to-toe jilbab.

Ms Begum, 17, had argued that her religious convictions meant she must be allowed to wear full Islamic dress. Her counsel, Cherie Booth QC, told the court that the school uniform was no longer suitable for her because she had reached sexual maturity and it did not sufficiently protect her modesty.

But yesterday Lord Bingham, the senior law lord, said that the uniform had been adapted to meet the interests of Muslim culture and had been accepted by the majority of the local Islamic community.

Lord Bingham said that the school, Denbigh High School in Luton, Bedfordshire, was fully justified in its policy and so reversed the ruling by the Court of Appeal. "It had taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs but did so in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way," he said. He added: "It would, in my opinion, be irresponsible for any court, lacking the experience, background and detailed knowledge of the headteacher, staff and governors, to overrule their judgement on a matter as sensitive as this."

Ms Begum said after the judgment was handed down: "Obviously I am saddened and disappointed about this, but I am quite glad it is all over and I can move on now. I had to make a stand against this and I am just happy it is all over now. Even though I lost, I have made a stand. Many women will not speak up about what they want."

She had worn the shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic) and headscarf from the time she started at the school at the age of 12 until September 2002, when she announced that the rules of her religion required her in future to wear the head-to-toe jilbab .

Ms Begum was sent home to change. She did not return to the school and later enrolled at another school where the jilbab was permitted. She is now considering taking her appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "This is a good judgment for schools. It shows that where a school is sensitive to local issues and has a good consultative process, its judgment will be upheld in law."

* September, 2002: Shabina Begum is sent home after she arrives at Denbigh High School, Luton, in the jilbab

* 13 February 2004: Papers are lodged at the Royal Courts of Justice in London asking for a judicial review of the decision to exclude her from school

* 23 February 2004: A judge finds that she does have an arguable case to seek judicial review

* 3 March 2004: Governors at Icknield High School in Luton decide to rescind their ban on Islamic headscarves

* 27 May 2004: A full hearing at the High Court is told the ban denies Ms Begum's right to practise her religious beliefs

* 15 June 2004: The High Court rules against Ms Begum and dismisses her application for a judicial review

* 25 August 2005: Ms Begum achieves five GCSE passes at another school, completing three years of study in one year

* 3 September 2005: A conference is held in London to mark International Hijab Solidarity Day

* 6 February 2006: Ms Begum's former school takes the case to the House of Lords

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
April 06, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - A police union in New Zealand has called for a driving ban on Muslim women wearing the all-encompassing burqa, adding fuel to a widening debate over how Western societies should deal with the issue of strict Islamic dress.

A row erupted after the small country's police force announced a new policy on how to deal with drivers wearing the burqa -- head-to-toe apparel that incorporates a head covering and veil (niqab) hiding the face apart from the area around the eyes.

Officers were told that only female personnel should be involved in checking such drivers' identities, given Islamic sensitivities. The policy was established because of the growing number of Muslims behind the wheel and after consultation with the Muslim community.

But the police union, the Police Association, declared that a person should not be allowed to drive at all while wearing a burqa.

This was both for safety reasons and because criminals could wear the garb to conceal their identity, said association President Greg O'Connor.

"We should learn from Europe and make sure that if people come to this country, they have to integrate, and there's no better time and place than on the roads driving because that affects us all," he told Radio New Zealand.

The country's Federation of Islamic Associations said Muslims were happy to comply with police requests to identify themselves, but enforcing a driving ban on burqa-wearers -- of whom there were few in New Zealand -- was excessive.

Although the Muslim proportion of the population has been growing steadily over the past 25 years, Muslims still comprise less than 1 percent of the total.

Land Transport New Zealand, the government agency charged with promoting transport safety, said that as long as drivers can drive safely, they can wear what they please.

On the Islam Online website, fatwa scholars cite a prominent Muslim cleric as saying that covering the entire body -- including the face and hands -- is a "condition" in one school of Islamic jurisprudence and "recommended" in other schools.

"If the law governing a given country requires uncovering the face of the woman for genuine reasons, such as identification, the Muslim woman, like all other women, abides by the law," they write.

Outlawed

The issue of Islamic dress has exercised authorities and stirred debate in a number of countries.

The government of the Netherlands is considering whether a ban on wearing the burqa in public would violate European human rights legislation after Dutch lawmakers last December voted in favor of a ban.

Geert Wilders, an independent lawmaker who first proposed the move, described the burqa as "medieval" and "hostile to women," while critics of the move called it intolerant and racist.

Italy last July passed counter-terror legislation which, among other things, strengthened penalties for a preexisting offense of trying to hide one's features in public, whether with a burqa or niqab, or with a balaclava or ski mask.

Back in New Zealand, a judge ruled early last year that Muslim women giving evidence in a fraud case must take off their veils, although he allowed them to be screened from public view while doing so.

Defense lawyers had argued that the court would be unable to assess the witnesses' demeanor during their testimony if their faces were covered.

Earlier, one of the women had told the judge that she would rather kill herself than reveal her face, prompting lawmaker Winston Peters to suggest she might be better off living in a Muslim country.

"Most New Zealanders would be disturbed that a person prefers suicide to complying with reasonable court rules was living in their midst," he said.

In 2004, France banned Muslim headscarves -- and other religious paraphernalia -- in all public schools, sparking an angry reaction from many Muslims. Singapore (15 percent Muslim) has also banned the wearing of Islamic attire in public schools.

Even in predominantly Muslim Turkey, the government had instituted a ban in schools, universities, public offices and parliament.

Some campaigners for women's rights have argued that enforcing a ban could result in some Muslim men compelling their wives, sisters and daughters to halt all public interaction, thus setting back the modest gains made by such women.

Security worries

In Australia, an independent lawmaker stoked a debate in 2002 when he said Muslim women should not be allowed to wear traditional Islamic dress in public places for security reasons.

Speaking a month after 88 Australians were killed in a terror attack in Bali, Fred Nile warned that a terrorist could easily hide weapons or bombs beneath a burqa.

It could also conceal the wearer's identity or even gender, he added, noting that female Chechen terrorists involved in a 2002 hostage-taking in a Moscow theater had hidden explosives beneath their traditional dress.

Writing just months after U.S.-forces toppled the Taliban regime after 9/11, Middle East Quarterly editor Martin Kramer said that the ubiquitousness of Islamic dress in Afghanistan was "probably the greatest asset of al Qaeda's leaders who are still on the run.

"Afghanistan remains the perfect hideout because half of the people go about their public business in disguised anonymity," he said.

Last October, wire services quoted an Afghan provincial police chief as saying a Taliban commander suspected of armed attacks against coalition troops had tried to evade capture by dressing in female Islamic attire. Afghan and U.S. forces captured the man, named as Gafar, during a raid on a home in central Afghanistan.

Palestinian terrorist chief Yasser Arafat was reported to have escaped Israeli forces during an offensive after the 1967 Six Day War by crossing the Jordan River disguised as a woman.

Accounts of the alleged incident do not record whether he was wearing traditional Islamic dress.