Tehran: Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency says university students have held a campus protest against authorities’ increasing pressure on women to wear mandatory headscarves in public.
The report says the students — both men and women — briefly scuffled with another group of Tehran University students who support the country’s conservative dress code. The headscarf, or hijab, is required in public for all women in Iran. Those who violate the rules are usually sentenced to two months in prison or less and fined around USD 25.
ISNA reported in May that a prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was sentenced to seven years in prison after defending anti-hijab protesters. Iranian authorities have adopted a tougher approach toward such protests since 2017, after dozens of women publicly took off their headscarves.