{"id":1232,"date":"2018-02-28T17:25:57","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2018-03-01T17:30:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T17:30:23","slug":"45-european-mps-call-on-eu-foreign-policy-chief-to-support-iranian-womens-anti-compulsory-hijab-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1232","title":{"rendered":"45 European MPs Call on EU Foreign Policy Chief to Support Iranian Women\u2019s Anti-Compulsory-Hijab Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D0kBUyOxkLA\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">February 28, 2018\u2014Forty-five members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have sent an\u00a0open letter\u00a0to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urging her to call on Iranian officials to immediately release the women who have been\u00a0arrested\u00a0for participating in the recent\u00a0anti-compulsory-hijab protests\u00a0in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cWe now ask you to publicly support the women who have been arrested by the Iranian authorities, by joining us in calling on Iranian officials to immediately and unconditionally release these women,\u201d said the letter signed by the MEPs that was sent by the office of Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake\u00a0on February 28, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Mogherini represented the EU in the negotiations between Iran and the UN Security Council members known as the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany) from 2014-15. A final agreement was reached between the parties in July 2015 and since then various EU delegations have traveled to Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cUrging the Iranian authorities to respect human rights is not analogous to demonizing Iran,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen countries with leverage on Iran are silent on the issue, they are not only failing the Iranian people, they are endangering European citizens who travel to Iran.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cMarietje Schaake and the other 44 MEPs are holding the torch by letting Iran know that business cannot carry on as usual while human rights are sidelined in the country,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">At least 29 people had been\u00a0arrested\u00a0as of February 4 in various cities in Iran for peacefully protesting against the country\u2019s mandatory hijab law, which requires women to keep their bodies and hair covered in public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The detainees\u2019 names have not been made public and it remains unclear how many remain in custody. CHRI has learned that\u00a0Vida Movahed,\u00a0Narges Hosseini, Azam Jangravi, Shima Babaei, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, and\u00a0Maryam Shariatmadari\u00a0were among those who were arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Shariatmadari was\u00a0badly injured\u00a0after a policeman pushed her off a utility platform while she was peacefully protesting against the hijab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The protesting women have been following the action of\u00a0Movahed, the first woman to be arrested after she waved her scarf on top of a utility box on Tehran\u2019s Enghelab St. in late December 2017. The act of removing your headscarf in public and waving it like a flag has become a symbol for the \u201cGirls of Revolution Street\u201d\u00a0movement, which advocates choice over compulsion for women\u2019s clothing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Iranian officials have tried to smear the protesters by claiming they\u2019re being directed by outside powers. One protester who was arrested, a woman\u2019s rights activist and member of a centrist political party in Iran, immediately rejected the accusations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cMy action has no connection with any group or individual, whether inside or outside Iran,\u201d\u00a0wrote\u00a0Azam (Azi) Jangvari\u00a0in a post on her Instagram page on February 15. \u201cI did this to fight against the mandatory hijab. Let us choose our own hijab. As an individual, I have the right to choose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">CHRI calls on the Iranian authorities to release all detained protesters and respect the Iranian people\u2019s right to choose what they wear and how they express themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cIranian women and even some men have been bravely protesting against the compulsory hijab in Iran despite the very real threat of arrest and imprisonment,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cThey are emphasizing that the hijab should be a choice,\u201d he added. \u201cCountries with leverage on Iran, especially in Europe, should support them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">For interviews, contact:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"> Hadi Ghaemi<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"> +1-917-669-5996<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"> hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 28, 2018\u2014Forty-five members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have sent an\u00a0open letter\u00a0to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urging her to call on Iranian officials to immediately release the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[387,386,200,389,388],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-ederica-mogherini","tag-european-parliament","tag-hijab","tag-hijab-protests","tag-hijab-protests-in-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1233,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}