₦airaland Forum

Until 2015, when he dissociated himself from the organization, Muslimdost was a prominent member of the Islamic State—Khorasan Province, the branch of the Islamic State (Dahesh) active in Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar. In fact, he had been one of its founders.

In the interview, aired last week and circulated on Twitter by the respected Afghanistan Analysts Network, Muslimdost explaine that “he was not the first Afghan who pledged allegiance to th Islamic State group in late 2014, but Mawlana Idris from Helmand, who graduated from Islamic Studies in Madina, was the first.”

About how the Islamic State—Khorasan Province was financed, Muslimdost claimed that it received money both from the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and from Pakistan. It also supported itself by kidnapping victims for ransoms in various countries. Muslimdost believes that financing from Pakistan ha continued to this day.

Muslimdost was asked in the interview how the fact that the Islamic State—Khorasan Province receives money from Pakista may be compatible with the fact that the terrorist group attacked the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul on December 9, 2022. He answered that it was a false attack, “theater” aimed precisely at denying rumors that the group was supported by Pakistan.

“The PAK embassy attack in Kabul was just a Drama. Nothing happened to the ambassador. Just a bodyguard was injured,” Muslimdost said.

Just how damning Muslimdost’s revelations are for Pakistan may not be immediately obvious to Western readers. The Islam State—Khorasan Province, among its many nefarious activities,
has killed dozens of devotees of Pakistan’s religious minorities inside the territory of Pakistan. If what Muslimdost says is true, it appears that Pakistani citizens are killed in Pakistan by terrorists funded by money of Pakistan’s taxpayers, including the victims themselves.

Plus, “there is limited affordability for people to buy good fuels to heat their homes,” Transform Iran ’s Lana Silk says.

“[Afghans are] burning anything they can – plastic, anything – to create some warmth. This is causing air pollution, and we have the risk of disease.”

Hunger and disease aren’t the only concerns. “The threat on their (believers’) lives is ongoing,” Silk says.

“The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians.”

Many believers fled Afghanistan during the United States’ sloppy withdrawal in 2021.

“There are secret prayer meetings and teaching sessions; people are giving each other encouragement and hope. They are reaching out and evangelizing the lost around them, which is incredibly courageous, considering the implications,” Silk says.

Most importantly, pray. “We need God to intervene and see a change in this regime and bring hope again to the people,” Silk says.

“There are millions of unbelievers in Afghanistan who have lost all hope, and we know the only true hope is Jesus. [Pray] for them to find their way to God; from there, God will make a way for them.”

Turkish church planters supported by FMI provide humanitarian aid all over Turkiye after the earthquake nearly two months ago. They distribute meals, tents, and blankets to quake survivors in the name of Jesus.

Bruce Allen with FMI says, “Anytime that there’s a crisis, the sectarian [and] the religious boundaries evaporate. People just need help.”

Approximately 96% of the population in Turkiye is Muslim. There are only about 200 evangelical churches in the whole country of 85 million people.
Allen says some Muslims prefer to go to the Christians for aid because the Christians will take the time to sit with them and listen, and the goods are of higher quality.

“I am pleased that our partners are providing comfort, relief, guidance, counseling as necessary, but also reflecting the purposes of Jesus Christ so clearly the people that many Muslims are now turning in faith to Jesus Christ.”

One of FMI’s partners, Pastor Enver, was distributing relief supplies to a quake-affected area. He travels 700 miles each way to supply aid to this area.

Allen explains, “The fact that other Muslims would prefer to get help from Christians rather than their fellow Muslims was putting the Islamic foundations to shame and they wanted to stop that. They wanted to stop the Christians.”

“In one area where Enver and his team were serving 150 people a meal, the police came up and pressured them saying, ‘We are carrying out the orders of the district governor commanding you to stop what you’re doing.’”

“The Christians are saying, ‘Why are you stopping us? Who’s going to help these 150 people?’ And the police said, ‘It’s no matter. Just stop. These people can take care of themselves. You leave this place immediately.’

“So we know in some instances, people are being very drawn to the Christians. But because of that, more radical elements in society are saying, ‘We must stop Muslims from making these connections with the Christians.’”

Thankfully, Allen says it was one isolated incident. “But it does remind me of the spiritual dynamic that is at play here. Yes, we’re taking care of people’s physical needs, but there’s a spiritual war being waged for people’s souls too.”

Jashub:
Where is the source of this piece of information?

Jashub:
Western media outlets no dey tire for propaganda? Chai...

Since late November many schools, mostly for girls, have been affected by sudden poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances, in some cases causing fainting and hospitalisation among the students.

At least "60 students were poisoned in a girls' school in the town of Haftkel" in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, state television's IRIB news agency cited a local official as saying.

A number of schoolgirls were poisoned in "five schools in Ardabil in the northwest", where the victims showed symptoms of "anxiety, shortness of breath and headaches", a provincial medical official told the news agency.

In the northwestern town of Urmia, capital of West Azerbaijan province, "a number of schoolgirls were taken to hospital on Saturday after feeling sick",
ILNA news agency reported without further elaboration.

According to an official count provided on March 7, "more than 5,000 students" have been affected by similar poisonings in more than 230 establishments, located in 25 of the country's 31 provinces.

On Friday MP Hamidreza Kazemi, the head of the national fact-finding committee formed to investigate these cases, specified that "the final report" would be published "in two weeks".

"We have received reports from various bodies and we are studying the issue in order to present our conclusion to parliament," he was quoted as saying by state television.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called on March 6 for "severe sentences" up to the death penalty against those found responsible for the poisonings, which he described as "unforgivable crimes".

The poisoning cases began two months after the start of a protest movement in Iran sparked by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.

Ali Shahvari grew up in a traditional and religious Muslim family in Iran. He was devoted to his country to the extent that he twice volunteered to fight on the front lines in the devastating Iran-Iraq War. But after one of his brothers was killed and another wounded in the 1980-88 conflict, he turned to drugs.

Two decades later he found salvation on satellite television. After initially questioning the messages of Jesus Christ broadcast in Persian from abroad, Shahvari eventually converted to evangelical Christianity under a new name, Iman (Faith).

But his path resulted in multiple arrests, a year in detention, and charges of blasphemy, acting against national security, and engaging in evangelical activity with the aim of attracting others to "deviant thoughts."

That is because it is illegal for Muslims to convert in Iran, where unrecognized religious minorities are barred from assembling.

Article 18, a London-based nonprofit organization that promotes religious freedom in Iran and advocates on behalf of its religious minorities, has documented the experiences of many who, like Shahvari, were forced to flee abroad to pursue their religious beliefs or who remain and are persecuted in Iran.

The organization's latest annual report, produced jointly with other religious advocacy groups, reports more than 120 incidents of arrest, detention, or imprisonment of Christian converts, Iran's largest Christian community.

The joint report says that one of the most striking trends in 2021 was the increased involvement of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the crackdown on Persian-speaking Christians. The IRCG was responsible for 12 of the 38 documented incidents of arrests of Christians or raids on their homes or house churches in 2021.

The report covering 2020-21 also notes the Iranian authorities' increased focus on cracking down on evangelism online, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advancing a so-called "cyberarmy" to "protect" the Islamic republic from perceived threats.

Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Twelver Jafari School of Shi'ite Islam was named as Iran's official religion under the constitution, which also states that all Iranian laws be derived and consistent with Islamic doctrine.

Three minority religions -- Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity -- are constitutionally recognized, but others are not and their followers are barred from holding services or possessing religious materials in Persian. That includes Christian coverts, who are not considered indigenous Christians.

"Indigenous Christians are mostly from Armenian, Assyrian, and Catholic churches, with some belonging to the Assemblies of God denomination," said Kiri Kankhwende of the U.K.-based religious advocacy organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which also contributed to the report. "While several converts have joined the Assemblies of God denomination, others belong to various evangelical house-church networks."
An Iranian Christian women lights candles in the Armenian church in Tehran where Iranian Christians, mainly Armenians, are celebrating Christmas in 2003.

In February 2021, Iranian lawmakers amended Articles 499 and 500 of the Penal Code, paving the way for converts to be handed sentences of five years in prison for "engaging in propaganda that educates in a deviant way contrary to the holy religion of Islam."

CSW's Kankhwende told RFE/RL that the "situation remains bad and alarming" for Christian converts in Iran, and that the trend of arrests "is ongoing."
Last month alone, there was a raft of cases involving Christian converts.

Among them were the sentencing of three Christian Iranian men by the Rasht Revolutionary Court to five-year prison terms for "propaganda activities" related to their alleged teachings of a "deviant sect."

Two of the three members of the non-Trinitarian Church of Iran -- Ayub Purrezazadeh and Ahmad Sarparast -- were arrested in September in an IRGC raid on their house church. The third, Morteza Mashoodkari, was arrested the same month at his home.

Article 18 said that efforts by prosecutors to cast the three as "Satan-worshippers" due to their interpretation of the Trinity appeared to be "an obvious attempt to vilify the group and lessen public sympathy for them."

Fariba Dalir
Fariba Dalir, a 51-year-old Christian convert who was arrested in the summer of 2021 along with six others, began serving a two-year sentence on April 16 for "acting against national security by establishing and leading an evangelical Christian church."

Dalir was sent to Tehran's notorious Evin prison the day before Easter. Four of the others, including her husband, were sentenced to 10 months in prison for membership of the banned church.

Another woman, Sakineh (Mehri) Behjati, was sent the same day to serve a two-year prison sentence at Evin prison on charges of "acting against national security" through her involvement with a house church. She was reportedly later allowed to transfer to another facility in the northern city of Rasht so she could be closer to her young child .

Following the arrest of Christian convert Rahmat Rostamipur in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea, on April 20 by 12 Intelligence Ministry agents, his wife was also summoned and interrogated and materials including Bibles were taken from their home, according to RFE/RL's Radio Farda. Rostamipour has yet to be formally charged with a crime.

And in late April, an Iranian Christian pastor who was initially sentenced to death for "apostasy" but subsequently given a reduced sentence for promoting "Zionist Christianity," was returned to prison after a brief furlough following a coronavirus outbreak in his ward at Evin prison.

The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has criticized the imprisonment of Yusef Nadarkhani of the Protestant Evangelical Church of Iran. It said Nadarkhani was legitimately exercising his religious freedoms, was discriminated against, and that he was not granted a fair trial or due process.

CRW's Kankhwende says that Christian converts charged under the revised Penal Code have limited legal recourse. "Depending on many circumstances, including financial resources, some are allowed to employ lawyers," she said. "But it is not always possible for the lawyers to represent their clients properly."

There have been cases of apparent leniency. In what was seen as a positive development, the Supreme Court ruled last year that the prison sentences of nine converts should be reviewed because their practicing of Christianity in a house church did not fit the verdict that they had harmed national security.

And some converts were temporarily released from prison last year over Christmas, and others, such as Pastor Nadarkhani, were granted furloughs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has harshly impacted Iran's overcrowded prisons.

But such incidents, according to Kankhwende, "depend largely at the discretion of the secret police and the supreme leader and are sometimes influenced by Iran's relationships with the international community and the impression it wishes to convey."

Iran has also been widely criticized abroad for the treatment of its recognized religious minorities, including obstructions that prevent members of faiths from attending services conducted in their native Persian.

Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, in his latest report expressed concern over the "continued repression of religious minorities, including through the forcible closing of houses of worship on national security grounds."

Rehman cited cases of pressure against Sunni Muslims, members of the Baha'i community, and the arrests of Christian converts despite the Iranian government's statements that religious minorities were respected and Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians were constitutionally free to perform their religious rites.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2022 redesignated Iran as a "country of particular concern," in part because it continues to "arrest, charge, sentence, and jail scores of Christians on charges including 'propaganda against the regime.'"

Numerous efforts have been launched in support of religious minorities in Iran, including a statement released in May by 25 Iranian Christians condemning Tehran's deprivation of Persian-speaking Christians' right to work.

Others, such as the online campaign
#Place2Worship , decry the hurdles placed in the way of Iranian believers who want to attend religious services in their own language, giving them no option but to worship in private homes.

Until Iranian converts can practice their religion freely in their home country, many are expected to seek sanctuary abroad.

Atena Fooladi Helabad, whose experiences were documented by Article 18 in March, told the organization that after she and fellow church members were sentenced to one year in prison, she had no choice but to flee.

After seven years abroad, she said, "I feel like a child separated from its mother, having been separated from Iran."

Pastor Gwadue Kwaghtyo was leading an early morning prayer vigil at the church in the village of Akenawe in Benue State on Sunday when gunmen stormed in. “As they were praying, they were surrounded by the armed men,” reports Salome Tor, Chairman of Logo LGA. “They kidnapped three people, killed one boy and injured two people with a machete; they are now in the hospital.”

Some reports indicate that four people were kidnapped. Pastor Gwadue Kwaghtyo is among those reported to have been taken.

The incident highlights the heightened risks facing millions of Christians during Holy Week. In many places, services are more regular and prominent, and this can further expose believers to hostility.

Believers in Nigeria are especially prone to violent attacks; last year, more than 5,000 Christians lost their lives for their faith – that’s more than anywhere else in the world combined. The country is sixth on the World Watch List.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident this week, eight students were kidnapped whilst returning home from their school in the town of Awon, Kaduna State, on Tuesday. It’s not yet known who is responsible, nor whether any of the victims are Christians.

Assailants killed a Christian in an attack on a worship meeting Saturday night (April 1) in Logo County, sources said, after at least six Christians in Apa County were killed earlier in the day, said Ikobi, Apa County resident Sunday Ojo in a text message that day.

“Ikobi village, a Christian community, is currently under attack by Fulani herdsmen,” Ojo said. “Several houses have been razed, while more than six Christians have been killed by the attackers. Christians in Apa Local Government Area need your prayers.”

Edward Lucky, another resident, said in a text message “Christian villages in Apa Local Government Area are under attack. Many Christians have been displaced by the armed herdsmen. These attacks have forced Christians to abandon their farms. There has been no government intervention in order to stem these attacks.”

In Benue state’s Logo County on Saturday night, Fulani herdsmen invaded a church service at about 9 p.m., killed one Christian, wounded five others and kidnapped the pastor and four other congregation members, sources said.

“Muslim Fulani herdsmen have launched an attack on Christians who were worshipping at a Pentecostal church in Akenawe, Tswarev village in Logo Local Government Area,” area resident Uzer Moses said in a text message to Morning Star News on Sunday (April 2). “A member, Mr. Orolumunga Changogi, was shot to death by the herdsmen, while the pastor of the church, the Rev. Gwadue Kwaghtyo alongside four others were captured and taken away to an unknown place.”

Five other church members were shot and wounded and were receiving hospital treatment, Moses said. Community leader Zaki Tyokase Ingyutu was among Christians shot and injured during the attack, he said.

Other sources confirmed the assault, including Hemen Terkimbi, a Christian community leader in the area. He said the federal government needs to curtail such unprovoked terrorist acts by herdsmen in Benue state.

“This attack on defenseless Christians who were in a worship service is callous,” Terkimbi said. “This act is condemnable, and there’s no moral justification for it.”

Days prior to attacks on Logo and Apa counties, herdsmen attacked Agatu County.

“The Fulanis attacked Atakpa village, a Christian community in Agatu Local Government Area, where they killed more than six Christians and wounded dozens of them,” said John Ikwulono, former council official of the Agatu LGA, in a text message to Morning Star News. “Aside from invading Atakpa village, the herdsmen also invaded Okpagabi village, where they shot and injured many Christians. Some of these Christian victims are currently receiving treatment in some hospitals here.”

Paul Hemba, special adviser on security matters to the Benue state governor, said large groups of armed terrorists and herdsmen recently carried out massive attacks in the state.

“In the last few days we have been receiving reports of large influx of armed herdsmen into Apa, Agatu, Guma and Kwande Local Government Areas,” Hemba said. “These attacks on Christian communities by herdsmen have persisted ceaselessly. This has been happening for some time, but military and police personnel drafted to curtail these terrorist acts have not been able to achieve their objective. The armed herdsmen have been coming for attacks, and each time they are repelled and after some days they come back again.”

Catherine Anene, a spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, told Morning Star News, “It is true these herders have moved in large numbers into the affected communities, but efforts are being made by the police and other security agencies to stem these attacks.”

On March 26 in Guma Local Government Area, five persons were killed in Fulani herdsmen attacks on the predominantly Christian villages of Njee and Chongu, after Udei village was attacked on March 23, said area resident James Anyamnhu.

“Five Christians were killed in these attacks,” Anyamnhu told Morning Star News in a text message. “Three of the victims were Christian women, while two of them were men. The victims are farmers.”

In Agatu and Otukpo counties, five Christians were killed in two herdsmen attacks on March 23 in Atakpa village, Agatu County and Iwili village, Otukpo County, said Joseph Ngbede, a council official of the Agatu LGA. He added that Guma County was also attacked.

On March 13, herdsmen also killed more 50 Christians in Kwande County, community leaders said in a statement.

“We write to report recent, sustained terror attacks on our communities over the past 10 days which have resulted in over 50 people dead, several injured, thousands displaced and loss of property and farmlands,” stated Festus Iorkyaa, Eric Tyohemba Udu and Solomon Terfa Jijah of the Turan Development Association (TUDA).

The killings and destruction of properties occur on a daily basis, they said.

“In some cases, the herdsmen have taken over the lands and settled on them,” they stated. “They come in good numbers with their cattle, destroying farm produce for their animals to graze, chase away the Christian inhabitants of such areas and pitch their tents there.”

They identified some of the Christians killed as Abande Njoor, Iornum Sonter, Abraham Terna, Aker Shagba Achuna, Kendon Tyover, Ornguga Tyodoo, Ajoh Iorhemba, Orshio Msughter, Abe Nyam, Aker Ushahembas, Ayagwa Lunen, Apav Terhile, Jirbee Amaku, Aza Bem, Ahil Wende, Iormumbes Ashi Shimave, Terhemba Madom, Andyar Aemberga, Kundu Igba, Tarkper Adomko, Jirbee Amaku, Terlumun Swen, Terna Udam, Atighir Aondokula, Terfa Mbagbar, Terver Mbagbar, Terzungwe Chagh, Tyoazua Aondona, Kogh Aondowase, Akura Utoo, Iortsor Shaapera, Awuhe Terhemen, Lase Mbanengen, Kuku Terngu, Kuku Mzehemen and Hangeuir Iorwuese Kuta.

At a press conference of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) on March 9, Benue state official Mike Uba said attaining land is not the primary motive for the attacks.

“These Fulani Muslims have wished to capture the Benue river banks in the past; their intentions in Benue and Nigeria have nothing to do with livestock,” Uba said. “What they are doing is land-grabbing for the Muslim Fulanis of the whole world. They are especially targeting Benue state.”

Uba said the attacks marked the first time that six Benue LGAs – Guma, Makurdi, Gwer-West, Kwande, Agatu and Logo – were simultaneously under attack by Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists.

Paragon311:
Religion islam is the Opium of the masses... terrorists

Know this and and know PEACE

Pastor Adinani Bulwa had fled Muslim opposition in northern Uganda and returned home to Muterere village, Bugiri District in January before he was killed on March 10. He was 42.

“We began preaching to the family members, and in early February four Muslim relatives got converted to Christianity, but the first-born son in the family [Pastor Bulwa’s brother] resisted the Christian faith and gave a warning that we should stop misleading Muslims to Christianity,” said the pastor’s wife, Zabiina Newumbwe. “Two weeks later my husband was invited to attend a family meeting [at his parents’ house], where he was pressured to recant the Christian faith, but he said he was ready to die for Christ’s sake.”

On March 10 at about 9:30 p.m., several Muslim relatives arrived at their home, furious and shouting, she said.

“They were saying, ‘We are a Muslim family, and Allah is our God,’” Newumbwe told Morning Star News. “We were shaken, and the children and I hid ourselves in the bedroom while leaving my husband at the sitting room.”

The group forced their way inside and forced Pastor Bulwa outside, she said.

“About 200 meters away from the homestead, we heard a loud wailing,” she said. “We remained inside the house. My husband did not return. Early in the morning, I went to see a Christian neighbor who accompanied me to the scene of the incident only to see my husband at a distance half naked. I could not control my emotions and shouted in a loud voice. Thereafter I fainted due to shock.”

Pastor Bulwa’s body was found with a deep cut on the forehead, a cloth around his neck indicating he had been strangled and cuts on the left foot.

Hundreds of Christians and others arrived at the site, and the pastor’s family hurriedly buried his body. Family members told Newumbwe she would also be killed if she named those who killed her husband, she said.

Besides the widow, the pastor leaves behind five children, ages 4 to 16.

In 2016, Pastor Bulwa had moved his family to Lira, in the Northern Region of Uganda, where he ran a successful business, principally maize production. On Jan. 24, 2019, the family secretly converted from Islam to Christianity, and he was appointed pastor to other former Muslims at his church.

The converts from Islam under his pastoral guidance gathered secretly, but last December Muslims saw Pastor Bulwa and his family outside the church site in Lira, and word spread that he had become a Christian.

“Since December 2022, the Muslims started threatening to kill us if we continued missing attending the mosque,” Newumbwe said. “As the threats continued escalating, my husband decided that we leave Lira back to our home in Muterere village.”

The family fled Lira in January and began an evening fellowship at their home in Muterere, she said.
Since Pastor Bulwa’s death, she and her children have left their home and taken refuge at the house of someone assisting them.

“The children and I are living in great fear from the relatives – our security is at stake,” Newumbwe said. “We had to seek help elsewhere. We need prayers so that God may guide us on what to do next.”

Encyclopedia1:
Ode, who says it’s talking about Hijab. Cover ur stupid hair if u are a lady, that’s what the Bible says.

The Rev. Musa Mairimi of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Buda 2 village, near Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru County, was killed in his home and his wife kidnapped, said the chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Rev. Joseph Hayab.

“The herdsmen and terrorists invaded the community on Thursday, March 23, and killed the pastor in his house,” Hayab said. “His wife was taken into captivity at gunpoint.”

Hayab said that more than 100 Christians have been kidnapped in Kaduna state’s Kauru, Jaba, Kachia, Kagarko and Kajuru counties.

“Who will we cry to and who will we run to for help except God?” he said. “Imagine that since the carnage of kidnapping of Christians started in Kaduna state, no arrests have been made.”

Area resident Istifanus Ma’aji requested prayer.
“Let us pray for the safe return of the wife the pastor and other Christians taken captive by the herdsmen and bandits,” Ma’aji said.

Pastor’s Son Killed
In Kaduna state’s Karimbu-Kahugu village, Lere County, terrorists on March 10 broke into the home of Baptist Pastor Dadi Babas at 1a.m., killed his son and kidnapped his wife and three other family members while the pastor was attending the funeral of this brother in Bauchi state, he said.

Pastor Babas said in a text message that he was informed of the attack at 4 a.m., and that his wife has been released.

“My son was brutally killed by the terrorists, while my wife, my daughter in-law who is nursing a baby, and two other members of my family were kidnapped,” he said. “As I send this message, three members of my family remain in captivity with the bandits, while my wife was abandoned by the terrorists because of her illness.”

He said the terrorists are demanding a ransom of 5 million naira (US$10,841) for the release of his remaining family members.

Peter Mukaddas, vice chairman of the Kahugu National Development Association, identified the assailants as “Muslim bandits.”

“We are fervently praying to God to touch the hearts of the terrorists so that they can release the Christians,” Mukaddas said in a text message.

Encyclopedia1:
Oponu, u think we be like una?

babz11:
You are not harming anyone but your own self. Haters of Islam need to understand that Islam is not religion of Arab. It is religion for everyone. When you embraces Islam, you become part of family no matter where you are. I admire that I’m part of that religion who represents every culture and race

otuomasirichi:
People should learn how to respect their tradition

Speaking to the press in his constituency in Yazd Province, Hojjat ol-Eslam Hossein Jalali said Sunday that punishments for flouting the hijab, according to the planned legislation, will include cash fines from 5m to 30b rials (around $100 to $60,000) and that other penalties may include revocation of drivers’ licenses and passports, or a ban on the use of the internet for celebrities and social media influencers and bloggers.

These penalties will apply to passengers who do not abide by the hijab rules while riding in vehicles, at restaurants, government organizations, schools and universities, airports and public transport terminals, in the cyberspace and to celebrities, and on the streets and other public arenas, Jalali added.

Hardliners have been looking for ways to strengthen the enforcement of hijab after their ‘morality police’ tactic of arresting women for “improper hijab” backfired with the death of Mahsa Amini last September, triggering nationwide popular protests.

Detainees were usually released after paying rather smaller cash fines but could also face prison and lashes if they had a previous record. Activism against the compulsory hijab could also bear serious consequences including prosecution and imprisonment.

The morality police has largely disappeared from the streets since Amini’s death in September and the resulting protests as authorities feared enraging people.

Four decades after the Islamic Republic forced women to wear headscarves, long tunics and trousers, or the long black veil called chador, women are increasingly appearing in public, even in many smaller and more traditional areas of the country, in regular clothing such as colorful dresses and with no headscarf covering their hair.


Many women say on social media that there is no way they will go back to dressing according to the government mandated dress code.

The plan, Jalali said, was finalized after “300 meetings with the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution and the National Security Council”. In December, amid nationwide protests, Jalali had said that thirty-seven different government organizations that were responsible for implementation of the existing hijab law had all received the relevant instructions to enforce it.

The government should submit the plan to the parliament in the form of a bill within the next couple of weeks, Jalali said of the envisaged plan which has been “brought to the attention of” the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Judiciary, implying their agreement with the new plan had been obtained.

Vida Movahed protesting against compulsory hijab in December 2017 at a busy streets in Tehran.

The new law, if passed, would exclude any “physical encounter” with women, Jalali said. He was apparently referring to plans to use CCTV cameras and facial recognition technology to identify women who flout the hijab, and use cash fines and social restrictions to punish them, instead of using the infamous morality police patrols on the street to issue warnings or make arrests.

The plans to eliminate physical confrontation were first revealed by the secretary of the Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad-Saleh Hashemi-Golpayegani.

He said at the time that CCTV footage from public places such as streets and public transport and facial recognition software would be used to enforce the hijab.