Iranian woman ‘is sprayed in the face with tear gas by undercover morality police for refusing to wear a hijab’
- Video shows woman confronting undercover morality officer, campaigners say
- Pair can be seen arguing about the Iranian regime before talk turns physical
- Man pulls a bottle of tear gas from his bag before spraying it in the woman’s face
- Argument started because woman went outside without a hijab, activists said
An Iranian woman has been sprayed in the face with tear gas after going outside without a hijab, campaigners say.
Video of the altercation shows the woman arguing with a man – believed to be an undercover morality officer – about the country’s oppressive religious regime.
The woman can be heard calling the man ‘blind’ and ‘ill-fated’ for following the government, before he turns around to confront her.
Campaigners say this is the moment an undercover morality officer sprayed tear gas in a woman’s face in Iran because she refused to wear the compulsory hijab
The woman filmed herself arguing with the man about the country’s strict regime before he pulled a black bottle from his bag (right) and sprayed it in her face
She tells him ‘do whatever you want, I’m not scared’ before he pulls a small black bottle from his bag.
He then sprays the substance in the woman’s face before the video cuts out.
The footage was posted online by Masih Alinejad, founder of the White Wednesdays and My Stealthy Freedom campaigns against compulsory hijab in Iran.
She wrote: ‘Watch an undercover morality police agent fires tear gas on a woman who refuses to wear hijab. This is the 2nd video of violence received by the campaign this week.
‘We call on international community to condemn this such brutality.’
Iranian women have been staging protests against the country’s strict laws which forbid women from going outside without covering their hair
At least 112 women were arrested or detained for violating Iran’s Islamic laws in 2018 in what has been dubbed a ‘year of shame’ (file image)
Since Iran’s Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, women have been ordered to cover their hair for the sake of modesty.
Violators are publicly admonished, fined or arrested.
Azam Jangravi, who drew attention to the White Wednesday campaign after removing her hijab and standing on top of an electrical transformer box in central Tehran, has told how she was sacked and sentenced to three years for the stunt.
Authorities even threatened to take away her eight-year-old daughter Viani, but she managed to flee the country before she was locked up.
Women have been removing their hijabs in public despite threats of arrest and have been demanding the regime give more rights to females
Women have been banned from going outside without a hijab covering their hair since Iran’s Islamic revolution more than 40 years ago
Earlier this month she was reported to be at an undisclosed location in another country having applied for asylum.
Iran arrested more than 7,000 people in 2018 after launching a wide-scale crackdown on protests during what is being called ‘a year of shame’ for the country.
Students, journalists, environmental activists, factory workers, lawyers, women’s rights activists, minority rights activists and trade unionists were all cuffed during the campaign of repression, according to Amnesty International.
The human rights group has published new figures revealing the scale of Iran’s repressive measures during an outbreak of protests against poverty, corruption and authoritarianism.
Hundreds were sentenced to prison terms or flogging – beaten with a whip – and at least 26 protesters were killed.
Nine people arrested in connection with protests died in custody under suspicious circumstances, Amnesty claims.