Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Iranian Fashion Victims: 150,000 arrested. 100 to stand trial.

IRAN: 100 WOMEN TO STAND TRIAL OVER NEW DRESS RULES
An Iranian judiciary spokesman said Wednesday that 100 women have been ordered to stand trial after the first week of a moralisation campaign imposing stricter Islamic dress code rules. Alireza Jamshidi said the women were charged with breaking the law on the veil and instigating prostitution with their dress style. Jamshidi added that thousands of others stopped by police on the street over the past week for failing to respect the Islamic dress code would not be tried because "they were not covered by the veil properly, but not in an evident matter and not intentionally."

Iranian authorities said last Friday they had arrested 150,000 women for breaking dress codes in the first week since the new rules were implemented.Under the new regulations, women found guilty of infringing Islamic dress rules can be sentenced to jail.

More local color on the situation from Persian Journal. It states that 13 are being held for trial not 100 - but is dated a few days ago:
Iran president manages to connect gooz-be-shaqiqe, "again"


P.S. I'm still trying to find out what gooz-be-shaqiqe means.