Iranian cleric tones down warning to women following acid attacks

Tehran, Oct 20 (IANS/EFE) A prominent cleric in Isfahan, Mohamad Tagui Rahbar, said Monday that when he recently issued a warning to improperly veiled women he meant to do it with words, not with acid, following several attacks that have disfigured women in the central Iranian city.

"I did not say the warning had to go beyond language," Etemad newspaper Monday quoted Rahbar as saying.

Rahbar condemned the attacks staged by unknown attackers in recent days who threw acid on the faces of women driving cars.

These acts are not acceptable "under the law or the Sharia (Islamic law)", the cleric added. "Even if a woman goes out with the worst possible dress, this should not be her punishment."

"My daughter was very pretty and well dressed. Her dress was not inappropriate," a woman called Zahra told Efe news agency over telephone.

She is the mother of a victim, Soheila Yourkesh, who has totally lost sight in one eye and 70 percent of vision in the other.

Naser, the father of another girl, said his 27-year-old daughter had undergone surgery at Tehran's Motahari hospital four days ago because "the burns were very deep and layers of her damaged skin had to be removed".

The girl was attacked with acid while driving her car. "Two boys on a motorcycle stood beside her vehicle and threw a large acid-filled bowl through the window," Naser said, adding he did not know the motive behind the attack.

The young woman, a graduate student in computer science and law, suffered burns on "the forehead, eyes, ear, shoulder, left arm, and thighs".

Several MPs have condemned the attacks, including Mansuri Abasali Arani, who said any attempt to link the issue to the dress code would be a akin to the actions by extremists of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, "which is something terrible and only shows a violent image of Islam".

Arani called for an investigation into the cases and said "foreign intelligence services and the Zionists (referring to Israel)" could be involved in "this malicious phenomenon".

"Of course our Basiyi (Islamic volunteers) and our supporters of Hezbollah would not do such a thing," said another legislator, Ahmad Bajshayesh Ardestani,

Fariba, a 42-year-old woman who lives in Isfahan, told Efe that since the attacks she tries not to leave her house.

"But sometimes there is no other option. I have to leave the house to go shopping, but when I go out my body starts to shake with fear," she explains.

Fateme, 26, said she and her friends do not lower the windows anymore when they drive.

"And when we leave the car, we look closely around us to make sure there is no motorcycle nearby and then run until we get to where we are headed," she adds.

In Iran, by law, women should completely cover their body, including arms, legs, hair and neck.

But many, especially the younger ones in big cities like Tehran and Isfahan, cut the long sleeves and wear only a thin scarf on the head that often falls off.

Radical groups have repeatedly called on authorities to enforce women's Islamic dress code more rigorously.

--IANS/EFE

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