Roja Heschmati, 33, was punished with 74 lashes for violating the obligation to wear a headscarf. The Iranian leadership wants to intimidate the protest movement with draconian punishments for opponents of veiling, but it could achieve the opposite.
Even before Roja Heschmati was taken to the cell where she would be whipped, the bailiffs warned her: she must put the scarf on her head. The 33-year-old Iranian woman was sentenced to 74 lashes for appearing on a street in Tehran without a headscarf. Now she appeared with her hair down to carry out the punishment. In the cell of a justice building in Tehran, there were chains hanging from the walls, as Heschmati later reported. “It was like a medieval torture chamber.” When she continued to refuse the headscarf, she was handcuffed; A bailiff placed a cloth over Heshmati's hair while an officer hit her shoulders, back, buttocks and legs with a whip.
According to Islamic Republic law, women in Iran must wear a headscarf in public. The obligation to wear a headscarf is one of the foundations of the theocratic system, but it is rejected by many Iranians. In September 2022, the death of young Mahsa Amini, who was detained for violating the veil requirement and died in police custody, triggered the most serious anti-regime protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Iranian leadership suppressed the uprising . However, hundreds of thousands of Iranian women are today taking to the streets without veils.