Thousands Of Iranian Women Take To Streets After Acid Attacks

[Webster]

Think Progress: After Acid-Attacks, Thousands Of Iranian Women Take To The Streets

Excerpt..

At least four women in Iran’s cultural capital were attacked with acid this week. Although police have arrested four men in connection to the acid-throwing, about 2,000 protesters marched on the department of justice in Ifsahan to decry the crime, which is relatively rare there. This massive outcry reflects on a burgeoning, social media-driven movement for increased social freedoms in the theocratic country.

One 28-year-old woman was attacked while driving her car with her window rolled down. She suddenly lost control while driving and then stumbled out of the door screaming, “I’m burned, I’m burned.” She then stripped off her head scarf – the covering is mandated by law for women in Iran along with loose-fitting clothing over the torso, arms, and legs. “The level of acid used was so much that all her clothes were in the processes of melting and I saw the acid create white spots on the asphalt,” one witness told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.

The acid that is thrown on people – mostly women – is often highly corrosive and meant to disfigure and maim them. Acid-throwing occurs around the world from South Asia to South America and is on the rise in Italy and in the United Kingdom.

Acid-throwing is unusual in Iran and the recent attacks have led many to believe that this recent spate of attacks are a natural outgrowth of a new law protecting, as the New York Times put it, “those citizens who feel compelled to correct women and men who in their view do not adhere to Iran’s strict social laws” which was enacted by the country’s parliament on Sunday. Though, to be sure, the law affords private citizens with the right to hand out verbal or written comments on social codes — not partake in vigilante violence.

“Such an act under any pretext is reprehensible,” Hojatoleslam Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, a cleric, told the semi-official ISNA news agency. “Even if a woman goes out into the street in the worst way, no one has the right to do such a thing.”

The country’s “dress code” was enacted after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when images of women in long black cloaks and face coverings came to dominate images of the country. While women are still legally obligated to cover their heads and bodies, the colors and shapes of their attire is less uniform these days. The street fashion blog the Tehran Times features images of stylish Iranian women in rolled or torn skinny jeans and patterned scarves – plus the ever-present long coat, or manteau. Though incredibly modern, their looks are modest enough to not fall afoul of Iran’s literal “fashion police” – who can no longer arrest womenwomen because of their attire.
Iran’s “modesty project” was scaled back by President Hasan Rouhani last year. But even before that it was rare for women to be jailed or lashed for breaking social codes — although those punishments were on the books.

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