The office of Turkish Airlines in Iran’s capital, Tehran, was closed down by Iranian police after female employees refused to wear the hijab in an act of defiance of the regime’s mandatory headscarf laws.
#Iranian-Turkish incident:
The #Tehran police closed the offices of Turkish Airlines in the capital after the employees of the office, Iranian citizens, refused to wear a hijab as required... pic.twitter.com/2fAssjNb0W— Abu Ali Express English (@AbuAliEnglishB1) July 10, 2024
The semi-official, IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency reported that police officers went to the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran on July 8th to issue what is called a first warning over the “non-observance of hijab” by the company’s employees.
However, the employees, who are Iranian nationals, reportedly “made trouble for the police officers,” prompting the office’s closure. The Tasnim report said the police subsequently sealed the office over the employees’ behavior.
According to Tasnim, the Turkish Airlines office will be allowed to reopen and resume business as usual, something the Iranian police did not confirm. The report further claimed the police would not close down any business due to the non-observance of hijab but issue first warnings. Turkish Airlines also did not immediately comment on the incident in Tehran.
Shiny new reformist pm
— Adam Smith (@LeveragdSellout) July 10, 2024
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi as saying that no legal proceedings or ruling had been issued regarding the sealing of the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran.
The incident at Turkish Airlines’ Tehran office took place the same day Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on his win after the country’s presidential runoff on July 5th. The election was held in late June to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last May.
Pezeshkian, a reformist politician, won the election against hardliner and conservative Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement of Iran’s mandatory hijab laws, which has been the flashpoint of months-long protest against the Islamic Republic following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini under the custody of the morality police for “improper hijab.”
Great job by Iran. Rules are rules. If Hijab wasn't a rule we would have a degenerate society like west in which every woman has an OF account.
— Arya (@Aryaala126) July 9, 2024
Iran and Turkey have maintained good diplomatic relations. In 2023, the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $5.4 billion. Turkey is also a popular tourist destination for Iranians, with some 2.5 million Iranian tourists visiting the country last year.
Turkish Airlines is also a favored carrier among many Iranians because its flights to the United States and Canada take less time than other long-haul flights from Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.
