Iran Arrests Two Marathon Organisers After Hijab Breach

Iranian authorities have arrested two organisers of a marathon on Kish Island, the judiciary said Saturday, after images emerged of women competing without hijab.

The Islamic republic’s judicial authorities have faced mounting criticism from ultraconservatives for failing to properly enforce a mandatory headscarf law for women, as fears grow of a surge of Western influence.

Women in Iran have in recent years been increasingly ignoring the hijab law, especially since 2022 nationwide protests, while the supreme leader’s office faced backlash last week for publishing a photo of an unveiled woman killed in the June war with Israel.

Images online of Friday’s marathon showed a number of runners who were not following the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women, which was enshrined in law in the early 1980s.

“Two of the main organisers of the competition were arrested on warrants,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported on Saturday, the day after the marathon took place.

“One of those arrested is an official in the Kish free zone, and the other works for the private company that organised the race,” it added.

Around 5,000 people took part in the race, according to local media.

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The judiciary earlier reported a criminal case had been opened against the organisers of the race.

“Despite previous warnings regarding the need to comply with the country’s current laws and regulations, as well as religious, customary and professional principles… the event was held in a way that violated public decency,” the local prosecutor was quoted as saying in Mizan Online.

“Considering the violations that occurred and based on the laws and regulations, a criminal case has been filed against the officials and agents organising this event.”

Conservative-aligned outlets, including Tasnim and Fars, had earlier condemned the marathon as indecent and disrespectful to Islamic laws enforced after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.

Women in Iran are required to cover their hair and wear modest, loose-fitting clothing in public.

But adherence to the hijab rules has become more sporadic since the protests in 2022 that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman arrested over an alleged dress-code breach.

Earlier this week, a majority of lawmakers accused the judiciary of failing to uphold the hijab law.

Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei later called for stricter enforcement.

Iran’s government under President Masoud Pezeshkian has refused to ratify a bill passed by the parliament that would have imposed tough penalties for women who do not observe the dress code.

In May 2023, the head of Iran’s athletics federation resigned after women without headscarves took part in a sporting event in the southern city of Shiraz.

AFP