Iranian Activists Protest Islamic Scholar's Arrest For Criticizing Supreme Leader
Islamic scholar Sedigheh Vasmaghi
In response to the arrest of a Islamic scholar Sedigheh Vasmaghi, imprisoned for criticizing compulsory hijab laws and Iran's Supreme Leader, 320 Iranian political and civil activists have campaigned for her release.
The activists called for the immediate release of all political and ideological prisoners in Iran, particularly Vasmaghi who “has shown over the past four decades her care and concern for both Iran and Islam.”
The campaigners pointed out the reversal of the promises made in 1979 on the founding of the Islamic Republic, when it had promised freedom and justice at its inception.
Security forces arrested Vasmaghi, 63, on March 16 and subsequently transferred her to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. The arrest came after the scholar described Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a dictator and the ruling system as oppressive, slamming the compulsory hijab laws which have been at the heart of the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement.
She was arrested while attending the funeral of 16-year-old Armita Geravand, killed by hijab-enforcement agents in the Tehran metro last year.
Vasmaghi suffers from ill health and her condition has deteriorated since her arrest. Iran’s judiciary, however, has denied her sufficient medical treatment and has repeatedly denied her hospital treatment.
Germany's Lufthansa extended a suspension of its flights to Tehran on Thursday with the Middle East on alert for Iranian retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Iran's consulate in Syria.
Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines are the only two Western carriers flying into Tehran, which is mostly served by Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines.
The region and the United States have been on alert for an attack by Iran since April 1, when Israeli warplanes are suspected to have bombed the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to call for "maximum restraint" on all sides and avoiding further escalation.
Lufthansa said it had suspended flights to and from Tehran until probably April 13, extending its suspension by two days, to avoid its crew having to disembark to spend the night in the Iranian capital."
Last weekend it was decided not to operate a flight to Tehran with a layover for the crew due to the security situation," a spokesperson said. "On the route, the crew has to spend the night in Tehran before the return flight to Frankfurt. We want to avoid disembarking for safety reasons."
Austrian Airlines, which is owned by Lufthansa and flies from Vienna to Tehran six times a week, said it was still planning to fly on Thursday but was adjusting timings to avoid an overnight layover.
"The Austrian Airlines flight to Tehran scheduled for today will take place, but will depart from Vienna several hours late in order to minimise the time between landing and departure in Tehran," a spokesperson said.
Iranian air space is also a key overflight route for Emirates' and Qatar Airways' flights to Europe and North America.
Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot and Air Arabia, among the airlines which fly to Tehran, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Flydubai said its flights to Iran are still currently scheduled to operate.
Businesses in Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey were closed for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holidays.
As calls to designate the IRGC grow, US lobbyists are pushing to ban Iran's foreign minister and delegation from the upcoming United Nations meeting on the Gaza war.
Among those leading the calls is Mark Wallace, the CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), who said, “April 18 will mark the 41st anniversary of Hezbollah’s bombing of the US Embassy in Lebanon. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s presence on US soil would be an outrageous insult to the victims and their families,” in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
According to reports, Amir-Abdollahian is scheduled to travel to the US to attend a United Nations meeting on the Gaza conflict on April 18, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1983 US Embassy bombing in Beirut which claimed the lives of 63 people, including 17 Americans.
Citing Amir-Abdollahian’s repeated meetings with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, the UANI ambassador also pointed to his complicity in the October 7 onslaught, which marked the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, sparking the current Gaza war. According to the Wall Street Journal, the IRGC directly helped Hamas devise the plan for the October 7 attack.
Wallace also referred to the brutal repression of dissent in Iran as another reason Washington should refrain from issuing visas for Iran’s top diplomat and delegation. “While Amir-Abdollahian was in New York in January 2024, the regime executed Mohammad Ghobadlou, a 23-year-old Iranian protester - perhaps just as Amir-Abdollahian was ordering room service from his penthouse suite at the Millennium Hilton Hotel at UN Plaza," he said.
Ghobadlou was arrested during the 2022 nationwide protests and was executed in January on the charge of killing a policeman.
Back in March, 27 members of the House of Representatives called on the Biden administrationto ban the entry of Iranian officials to the US but Washington continues to allow the regime entry to high level meetings of global leaders in spite of its being labeled as the world's leading state sponsor of terroraccording to the latest US reports.
Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday called on Muslim countries to isolate Israel, seemingly taking advantage of rising concerns about a retaliatory attack by Tehran.
Reports emerged on Wednesday indicating that American and Israeli intelligence agencies are anticipating an attack by the Islamic Republic in the coming days in retaliation for a devastating Israeli strike on April 1. Two top Revolutionary Guard generals and five other officers were killed when a precision missile flattened a building in the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus. Tehran began threatening retaliation, which could spark a direct war with Israel.
The issue of Gaza cannot be disregarded, Khamenei said, and insisted that it is at the forefront of concerns in the Islamic world, requiring a sense of collective responsibility from everyone. “The hearts of nations, even non-Muslim nations, resonate with the plight of Palestine and Gaza, evidenced by unprecedented rallies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and even the United States against the crimes of the Zionists.,” he told a group of government officials and unidentified foreign diplomats.
Khamenei, in a condescending tone, stated that the Islamic Republic “has the definite expectation and suggestion” that Islamic countries severe political and economic ties with Israel, at least until such a time when Israel stops attacking Hamas. He went on to say that if referendums were held, the majority of Muslims would support such a move, so their government should respect the public mood.
Once reports of an “imminent” Iranian attack emerged on Wednesday, US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iraq to ask them to deliver a message to Iran urging it to lower tensions, a source with knowledge of the situation said. The calls took place, and the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian delivered the same message about isolating Israel to his UAE counterpart. He urged Muslim nations to coalesce and put pressure “on Israel and its backers to end the killings in Gaza.”
Turkey this week adopted the strategy demanded by Khamenei restricting exports of a wide range of products to Israel until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza. This was Ankara's first significant measure against Israel after six months of war.
Another major development on Wednesday was the death of Ismail Haniyeh’s three sons and three grandchildren in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, that rather quickly faded in the news after reports about an imminent Iranian attack emerged later in the day.
Tehran has remained generally quiet about this development, with only the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guard publicly expressing his condolences to Iran’s close Palestinian ally. Calling the airstrike “on a civilian car” a “terrorist act” Hossein Salami both expressed sympathy and congratulated Haniyeh for the “martyrdom” of his sons.
Iranian MP Mehdi Bagheri has warned that a travel ban is being considered as one of the penalties for defying compulsory hijab as crackdowns on the Islamic dress code continue.
In an interview with Khabar Online, Bagheri warned, "A person who does not respect the law, does not accept the law, and in a way rebels against it, will be deprived of services provided in the country, including foreign travel."
Travel bans have already been imposed on the likes of celebrities for voicing dissent against the government since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom uprising, but the punishment for hijab defiance comes amidst deepening punishments for women daring to defy the Islamic dress code.
The government continues to lose control of the mass rebellion which has followed the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022, for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly, which led to the biggest uprising since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Bagheri, whose popularity waned in recent elections, further discussed the consequences for government employees failing to adhere to compulsory hijab, suggesting that under the latest ‘Chastity and Hijab’ bill, judges could consider penalties such as being denied promotion or facing temporary or permanent dismissal from service.
He also emphasized the potential for imprisonment for women resisting compulsory hijab. Morality police patrols continue alongside surveillance across Iran, with uncovered women banned from public places and thousands already arrested for defiance and imprisoned on trumped up charges such as compromising state security.
Senior officials within the Iranian government have been emphasizing the continuation of enforcing compulsory hijab for women. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei labeled hijab as a "religious duty" on April 3, condemning attempts to challenge its enforcement within Iran. Khamenei attributed such challenges to foreign instigation aimed at undermining the norms regarding hijab.
Khamenei emphasized that even women who do not adhere to Sharia law are obliged to observe compulsory hijab.
Iranian dissident Hamed Esmaeilion urged travelers to cancel domestic and international flights from Iran fearing a repeat of the tragic 2020 IRGC downing of a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 crew and passengers.
As Tehran threatens retaliatory action for the Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Damascus, Esmaeilion, who lost family in the tragedy, warned of the risk of civilians being caught in the crossfire.
In January 2020 when Iran’s top military commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq, the IRGC days later downed a Ukrainian airliner, claiming it was accidental. After the Damascus strike, in which at least two IRGC commanders and several other personnel were killed, Tehran has voiced clear intentions for retaliation.
“In these situations, governments only think about the health of their military forces, and domestic and foreign airlines only think about their financial profits and losses. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) does not care about the safety of aircrafts and passengers at these times,” the dissident said, warning of the dangers of the current uncertainty.
Esmaeilion stated that when civilians are “the most vulnerable targets of the Islamic Republic and the IRGC’s criminal commanders,” Iranians should themselves prioritize their safety and cancel their flights.
His remarks came just hours after German Lufthansa Airlines suspended all its flights to and from Tehran given the rising tensions in the region.
Citing unnamed American and Israeli officials, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that a major missile or drone attack by Iran or its proxies on Israel seems imminent in the coming days.
