Iran demolishes the homes of athletes who competed without Hijab

Authorities demolished Elnaz Rekabi’s home, a female rock climber who became a symbol of nationwide anti-government protests after competing abroad with her hair uncovered, official media reported Saturday.

A video that was posted on social media this week appeared to show the demolition of Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan province. Mizan, the judiciary’s news agency, reported on it.

In October, Rekabi became a symbol of the anti-government movement after she competed in a rock climbing competition in South Korea without wearing a headscarf, which is required in Iran for women to wear. She said her non-compliance was unintentional in an Instagram post the next day.

Iranian officials appear to have accepted her explanation, with the head of the country’s Olympic committee saying she would not be punished.

In September, Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by Tehran’s morality police for violating the dress code, died in police custody. Protesting against the government’s accusation that foreign countries have incited the demonstrations in which thousands of women have participated by filming themselves burning their headscarves and cutting off their hair, Iran has been shaken for months.

Iran executed four people on Sunday charged with spying for Israel.

According to Mizan Online, the sentences were carried out four days after Iran’s supreme court upheld the death penalty for “their intelligence co-operation with the Zionist regime [Israel] and abduction.”

According to Iranian exile groups tracking the uprising, at least 450 civilians have been killed during the government’s violent suppression of the demonstrations. Iranian officials have given lower death tolls, which include security personnel.

Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, said that the law requiring women to cover their hair is under review.

Parliament and the judiciary are both working on the issue, according to Isna news agency.

He did not say what alterations the two bodies, which are dominated by conservatives, might make.

The cultural commission of parliament met on Wednesday and “we will see the results in a week or two,” he said.

Iran’s republican and Islamic foundations are constitutionally entrenched, President Ebrahim Raisi said Saturday.

In response to questions about whether the constitution should be implemented strictly or loosely, he replied in a televised interview, “There are ways to implement the constitution that are flexible.”

In April 1983, four years after the Iranian Revolution deposed the US-supported monarchy, all Iranian women were required to wear the hijab.

Iran says that the US and its allies, including Britain, Israel, and Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based outside the country, are fomenting the street protests, which the government calls “riots”.

More than 300 people died in Iran’s recent unrest, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said this week.

On Saturday, Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, said that the number of people killed during the protests “exceeded 200.”

According to state news agency Irna, the figure included security officers, civilians, and “separatists” as well as “rioters.”

A non-profit organisation based in Oslo said Tuesday that at least 448 Iranians had been “killed by security forces during the ongoing nationwide protests.”

Last week, UN rights chief Volker Turk said that 14,000 people, including children, had been detained in the crackdown on the protest.

Tags : Hijab, Iran