Iran arrests marathon organisers over women not wearing hijab

The Iranian judiciary said that two marathon organizers were arrested for allowing women who did not wear the hijab to participate.

The move comes after photos appeared online of women without veils competing in the race on Friday.

Two thousand women and 3,000 men participated separately in the marathon, which was held on Kish Island off the southern coast of Iran.

Some of the competitors, wearing red shirts, were clearly not wearing hijab or any other head covering.

This elicited very different reactions.

Many supporters of change in Iran praised these images as further evidence of Iranian women’s rejection of the authorities’ restrictions on what they can wear.

For their part, Iranian officials responded to it as an unacceptable challenge to the status quo.

The judiciary moved quickly against the organizers.

Not only were some of the runners violating hijab rules, but even holding the marathon at all drew condemnation from the country’s Islamic religious leadership.

Just a few years ago, the sight of a large number of Iranian women wearing sports equipment and participating in such a massive public event – ​​even if they were separated from the male participants – would have been seen as an offense.

The public prosecutor in Kish said that the way the race was held was in itself a “violation of public morals.”

The issue of the hijab remains at the heart of the debate about the direction Iran may be heading.

Government measures against women who appear in public places without a head covering have varied, sometimes allowing the rules to be relaxed, and at other times cracking down on any transgression.

The massive protests that shook Iran for months, three years ago, broke out due to the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman. Mahsa Amini, who died in detention After he was arrested for an alleged dress code violation.

Since the violent suppression of protests and mass arrests, some Iranian women have continued to defy the rules.

This has led to a recent reaction from the authorities.

The head of the judiciary warned of a renewed campaign against women who do not wear the hijab in public places.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said that intelligence agencies had been ordered to identify and report on what he called “organized trends that promote immorality and not wearing the hijab.”

It is clear that there is currently no end to the confrontation between Iran’s leaders and many of its people – especially among the younger generation – over how women are allowed to dress.