Iranian woman who took off headscarf released, says lawyer
The woman, said to be a 31-year-old mother of a toddler, has been the subject of a social media campaign in Iran. Photo: File
(Web Desk) – A human rights lawyer has said that an Iranian woman who was detained after taking off her headscarf and holding it on a stick in Tehran has been released.
Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh says she has seen an official dossier that shows that the woman has been released, reported the BBC.
The photograph of the woman was widely used in connection to the White Wednesday campaign in which women in Iran wear white to protest against the country’s strict dress code.
The woman, said to be a 31-year-old mother of a toddler, has been the subject of a social media campaign in Iran following anti-establishment protests last year that claimed at least 20 lives.
The lawyer said she had gone to the prosecutor’s office and had learnt of her release, according to the BBC.
“The girl of the Enghelab Avenue has been released”, Sotudeh wrote in a Facebook post in Persian on Sunday.
In her post, Sotudeh spoke about the woman in reference to the avenue where she took off her headscarf.
“I hope they don’t fabricate a legal case to harm her for using her basic rights,” Sotudeh wrote. “She has not done anything wrong to deserve prosecution.”
Iranian officials have so far made no public comments on the issue.
Following her detention, a hashtag [#WhereIsShe] in Persian inquiring about the young woman had started trending on Twitter with the BBC reporting that thousands of people have tweeted using the same hashtag.
