It appears to be true:
A 21-year-old medical student at the University of Shahrekord in western Iran identified only as Farinaz attempted suicide on Monday by overdosing on aspirin after police had arrested and later released her for breaking new Islamic dress code rules. She is currently in a coma at the hospital of Isfahan. Under a new moralization campaign which kicked off last month, police can arrest women who do not abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Farinaz had reportedly not fully covered her hair with the veil.
While a greater crackdown is being called for by an official of the He man woman haters club.
“The actions of State Security Forces (SSF) against mal-veiled women are necessary but insufficient”, said Farahnaz Qandforoush, the governorate’s advisor on women’s affairs.The SSF should have decisively enforced the dress code over the past decade, Qandforoush told the government-run news agency Fars.“The inaction in previous years has led women and girls to start thinking that they can appear in society in any way they want”, Qandforoush protested.
You have to wonder where this is all headed.
Where it seems headed is a very common historical paradigm. People subject to coercion by state.
ReplyDeleteUnemployment and inflation rise.
People get pissed.
Leader promises reform but ends up with higher unemployment and inflation.
Government removes subsidies, hurting lower and middle class even more.
People now very very very pissed.
Leader orders severe coercive measures to keep people in line.
At this point, it becomes a powder keg awaiting a match no one can forsee. Some odd event, such as a the basij brutally breaking up a peaceful demonstration, etc. As I recall, it was a Brit firing on an American hounding him for payment of a debt that set off the first hostilities in 1775.
This general paradigm is just a little younger then civilization. My own suggestion to Ahmedinejad: history has shown that the eating of cake tends to quell a rebelious populace. He needs to suggest that Iranians who can no longer afford tomatoes or gas should turn to cake for sustinance. It worked for the French.