Reacting to the news that Iran’s parliament has passed a new bill that would impose further draconian penalties severely violating women’s and girls’ rights as well as increasing prison terms and fines for defying Iran’s degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws, Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said:
Women living in Iranian cities say they face frequent sexual harassment, catcalls, and verbal abuse — and many fear that those incidents mean they’re not safe from violent crimes. Though street harassment is illegal, the law is rarely enforced and few victims are able to prove that a crime has taken place
Twenty-five-year old Pegah plays music on the street, gathers with friends in the park, and dresses as she pleases — all things that were difficult or impossible in her native Iran. She fled to Georgia following repeated arrests for violating Iran’s dress code, and after she appeared in a documentary that put her on the authorities’ radar