Iran's Mandatory Hijab Law Claims Another Victim

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An Iranian woman and a mother of two was left paralyzed after being shot by Iranian police over an alleged violation of the regime’s mandatory hijab laws.

The incident came after a video of an Iranian female teenager being violently arrested by police officers went viral on social media. It also came after the Islamic Republic recently unveiled a new plan to enforce the mandatory hijab throughout the country.

31-year-old Arezoo Badri was driving home with her sister in the northern Iranian city of Noor on July 22nd when police attempted to pull her over to confiscate her car. The driver did not comply with their order to stop, prompting officers to shoot, according to the city’s police commander, Colonel Ahmed Amini, without naming Badri.

It was unclear whether Badri was wearing a hijab when police tried to stop her. But her vehicle had a confiscation order against it, suggesting multiple alleged violations of the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab laws.

An unnamed source with knowledge of the case told the BBC the police officer first shot the car’s tires before targeting her directly from the driver’s side. Amini said the use of firearms by police officers is permitted under Iranian law.

"The bullet entered her lung and severely damaged her spinal cord," the source said. "She is paralyzed from the waist down, and doctors have said it will take months to determine whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not."

Badri was initially taken to a hospital in Noor before being transferred to Sari, the provincial capital, for lung surgery. She was then taken to Tehran, with the source saying the bullet was only removed from her body after ten days. Both the Iranian police and the BBC source confirmed that Badri’s car windows were tinted.

She is now in the intensive care unit of the police-owned Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Tehran and under tight security. The source said her family is allowed only brief visits, during which their mobile devices are confiscated. Authorities have prohibited visitors from taking photos or videos of Badri, though some have emerged. 

Even though many Iranian women said they would continue to defy the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab laws, which had been in place since 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, despite the risks, the Iranian regime continues to suppress those who dare oppose the law. 

Recently, the Iranian government announced the Tuba Plan. This new initiative will see the training of 1,500 "missionaries" tasked with promoting the "culture of chastity and hijab," focusing on education centers and schools. 

CCTV footage of a recent violent assault on a 14-year-old teenage girl by hijab enforcement officers in Tehran sparked widespread outrage on Iranian social media, with the girl’s mother saying she found her daughter at a morality police station with "bruised face, swollen lips, a bruised neck, and torn clothes.”

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