Soori Babaei Chegini, a rights activist protesting the requirement that women wear the hijab in public, was arrested on the evening of July 13, in the city of Qazvin, northwest of Tehran.
According to a social-media report citing Mohammad Reza Moradbehrouzi, Babaei's husband, eight government agents stormed the house of Babaei's brother and arrested her. The officials also confiscated her mobile phone, those of her children, and allegedly threatened her 13-year-old daughter.
Babaei posted a video of herself on social networks on July 12 in support of the "No to mandatory hijab" campaign.
In the video, she said accepting the headscarf was tantamount to a seal of approval of all the "injustices" women face under Islamic law.
خواهش می کنم دو دقیقه وقت بگذارید و صحبت های صحبت های خانم #سوری_بابائی_چگینی از زنان شجاع سرزمین مون از شهر قزوین رو ببینید، و نشرش بدید #حجاب_بی_حجاب #کمپین_نه_به_حجاب_اجباری#سوری_بابائی_چگینی pic.twitter.com/opaeajxe5E
— دختر ایران (@Iranian_girl202) July 11, 2022
A July 5 order by President Ebrahim Raisi to enforce the hijab law has resulted in a new list of restrictions on how women can dress.
In response, activists have launched a social-media campaign under the hashtag #no2hijab to urge people to boycott companies enforcing the tougher restrictions. On July 12, women's rights activists posted videos of themselves publicly removing their veils to coincide with the government’s National Day of Hijab and Chastity.
Babaei was previously summoned to the prosecutor's office due to her protest activities, especially regarding the mandatory hijab.
Her husband was also previously sentenced to one year in prison in absentia on a charge of "insulting the leader of the Islamic republic." He was also ordered to pay a fine of 100 million Iranian rials ($312) after being convicted of "spreading falsehoods with the intention of disturbing the public mind.”
The hijab became compulsory in public for Iranian women and girls over the age of 9 after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Many Iranian women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.