Iran has arrested the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over the anti-hijab protests that are raging across the country. Faezeh Hashemi, an outspoken critic of the regime, was arrested in Tehran, Radio Free Europe reported.
According to Iran’s official news agency Tasnim, Hashemi was arrested for ‘inciting’ riots.
Hashemi is a former lawmaker and women’s rights activist. She said the Iranian clerical establishment, which her father helped bring to power, had deteriorated into a dictatorship.
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The current wave of protests to hit the hardline Islamic regime in Iran started after a 22-year-old girl was killed by the country’s morality police. Mahsa Amini was arrested over “unsuitable attire” and was persecuted while in custody. The widespread anti-hijab protests roiled the country with large number of students and women protesting against the imposition of the Muslim head scarf.
According to reports published on social networks, Mahsa Amini had traveled from the western Iranian province of Kurdistan to Tehran to meet relatives when she was arrested on September 13.
Dozens of people were killed across the country as the Tehran regime violently cracked down on the protesters. The exact number of the dead is not available but even official sources admit that dozens have been killed.
Hashemi accused the government of treating the peaceful protests as riots and using brute force in scuppering protests. “What [authorities] want to convey is that these are not protests, they’re riots, but in fact they are protests,” Hashemi said, according to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
“Those who have seen the protests know that, for example, if the youth set fire to garbage cans, it’s because the [security forces] have used tear gas and they want to neutralize it; or when they beat a member of the security forces it’s because they have been attacked and they’re defending themselves,” she added.
Iran made the wearing of the head scarf after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In the latest protest against the regime, protesters are demanded that women’s rights must be respected. While the protests started over the death of Mahsa Amini, the protesters are now demanding the end of the Islamic republic.
