Iranian hijab protestor condemned to four years in prison

Iranian hijab protestor condemned to four years in prison
Speideh Rashnu later made a televised confession which many believe was under duress. / bne IntelliNews
By bne IntelliNews October 29, 2023

A 28-year-old Iranian woman, Speideh Rashnu, has been given an indefinite sentence in a second court case over not wearing the mandatory hijab, which brings her years of imprisonment to a total of more than four years, according to her post on Instagram on October 29.

Rashnu was arrested in July 2022, after her altercation with a woman on a bus over the forced head covering went viral.

She was charged with “assembly and collusion against national security through contacts with individuals abroad”, “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “encouraging (moral) corruption and prostitution.”

She later made a televised confession which many believe was under duress.  

Rashnu was first  sentenced at Evin Courthouse in May on charges of “provoking promiscuity and engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic” after sharing photos of herself without a headscarf on social media. She was given five years of suspended imprisonment for “assembly and collusion against national security”, “propaganda against the regime,” and “not wearing hijab in public”.

The new preliminary court ruling gave her a six-month imprisonment, a IRR10mn ($192) penalty, prohibition from activity on Instagram for a year and permanent deletion of the present account, she explained in her post.  

With the new six-month imprisonment, three years and seven months of the earlier five-year suspended sentence would become enforceable, which means she has to serve a total of four years and one month in prison if the ruling becomes final.

“Why? Because she wants her most basic human rights,” she wrote on her Instagram page.

Rashnu’s arrest and litigation occurred two months before the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the hijab-enforcing police, which sparked the country’s protests last year, with more than 500 people allegedly killed in clashes with security. 

On October 6, Iranian media also announced the death of 16-year-old girl Armita Garavand, who had been in a coma for a month after a reported clash with a Hijab enforcer in Tehran Metro.

Garavand was buried on October 28 in Tehran's Behesht e-Zahra cemetery in the south of the capital, with her burial and mourning ceremony broadcast on social media platforms. 

Iranian authorities dismissed claims of an assault, maintaining that she had passed out as a result of a drop in blood pressure. They later released footage from the Metro station as proof of the absence of any conflict with the hijab enforcement police, though this did not include footage from inside the train where she had allegedly fainted.

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