Iran: Marathon organisers arrested over women not wearing hijab

Iran’s judiciary has said that two organisers of a marathon have been arrested for allowing women who were not wearing hijabs to participate.

The marathon, held on Friday on Kish Island off Iran’s southern coast, drew 2,000 women and 3,000 men who ran in separate categories. Photos from the race showed several women in red T-shirts running without the hijab or any form of head covering.

The images triggered sharply contrasting reactions. Supporters of reform in Iran celebrated the moment as another sign of women rejecting state-imposed dress restrictions. 

However, officials condemned the scenes as an unacceptable challenge to established rules, prompting swift action against the organisers.

Authorities criticised not only the decision to allow unveiled women to compete but also the staging of such a large public event involving female athletes. Until recently, mass participation of Iranian women in sports events, even with gender segregation, would have been considered a breach of acceptable norms.

The prosecutor in Kish said the conduct of the race amounted to a “violation of public decency”, reflecting the government’s broader concerns. 

The hijab remains a central issue in Iran’s ongoing debate over social freedoms, with enforcement fluctuating between periods of relative tolerance and strict crackdowns.

The mass protests that spread across Iran three years ago were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman who died in custody after being detained for an alleged dress code violation.

Although those protests were suppressed through force and widespread arrests, many women have continued to appear in public without head coverings.

That defiance has triggered a new response from the government. The head of the judiciary recently warned of a renewed campaign targeting women not wearing the hijab in public.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said intelligence agencies had been instructed to identify and report what he described as “organised trends promoting immorality and non-veiling”.

(BBC)

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