Throwing Acid on People is Un-Islamic or Protesting Such Acts?

A photographer working for the government ISNA student news agency was arrested after his photographs of people who were protesting the recent acid attacks were published by the news agency. No news about his whereabouts or condition has been released. Mahdie Golroo, a civil and women’s rights activist was also arrested because of her participation in the anti acid-throwing gathering in Tehran. Her whereabouts too are unknown. Behrouz Malboosbaf, a young film documentary man from Isfahan was also arrested and Fars news agency run by Iran’s security-military apparatus, along with other similarly affiliated news sites, posted photographs that they attributed to him and claimed that he had dressed up as a woman during what they called were “recent events that took place in Isfahan when he tried to incite the public.” At the same time, a number of civil activists in Tehran and Isfahan who had participated in anti-acid throwing events have been put under pressure by state agencies and the media that published news reports about such gatherings have been attacked by various state officials. Narghes Mohammadi, a prominent member of the center for the defense of human rights who along with Mehdi Golroo participated at an event in front of the parliament to protest the recent acid attacks on women told Rooz about the pressures that had been exerted on her and others who participated in such gatherings. She said that after the gatherings, extremist sites posted photographs of her and Mehdie Golroo, along with two other women’s rights activists and accused them of insulting the Islamic principle of encouraging virtue and battling vice while drawing caricatures of the women. She added that they had received threatening blocked-sender calls and ultimately witnessed the arrest of Mahdie Golroo.

According to Ms Mohammadi, Mahdie’s family members have no news about her whereabouts and when they visited the public prosecutor’s office they were told, “We cannot at this time say anything. Go and we will telephone you whenever it becomes necessary.”

Apparently Ms Golroo has been arrested on a warrant, even though her family members have not seen the warrant and do not know which authority issued the warrants, the ministry of intelligence, the Revolutionary Guards or some other state agency.

About 280 miles to the south, in the city of Isfahan the whereabouts of ISNA student news agency photographer Arya Jaafari are not known. He was arrested by the ministry of intelligence but his family has not heard from anyone about his condition or his charges. Another Isfahani, Behrouz Malioosbaf is in a similar situation.

Ms Mohammadi told Rooz, “These acid attacks have not only terrorized the women of Isfahan but the whole country. Iranian people are shocked and astounded. The violence committed against eight women (and this is only the official number) by acid throwers has thrown Iranian society into a shock. So it is not strange for people to react. On one hand they want to express their opposition and protest to such terrorist acts while on the other demand that the government to use all its resources to find the perpetrators and expose them. So it is very natural for people to gather together against this and hold a peaceful and orderly rally. At the most we will raise some placards during the gathering and chant some slogans. We decided to hold a meeting in front of the Majlis on Wednesday. About 200 people who were civil and women’s rights activists came. We carried some placards and one of them asked that the Majlis stop its support of a moral bill from its agenda. We also expressed our opposition to a bill that proclaims to protect the hijab.”

She continued, “Problems began for some of us, particularly the four of us whose photographs were posted on some government websites, after the gathering. We got calls from unknown sources and we were negatively caricatured in the media. The callers and the writers questioned us for protesting the virtue and vice bill in the Majlis. When Ms Golroo was arrested, the issue took a more serious turn. We think it is unacceptable that a photojournalist and a women’s activist are arrested because they gathered in front of the Majlis and carried some placards in a civil and orderly manner especially when the whole of Iranian society is terrorized and protests acid-throwing acts. People expect the perpetrators of these violent acts be identified and presented to the country so that the government can uproot this problem, not just punish the individuals. I do not believe that punishing a few people will eradicate this type of violence. The issue is much broader and officials must investigate and examine it. We have noticed that some extremist websites are turning the issue upside down and rather than focusing on the acid throwers they are turning the issue into a political security problem and are focusing on the protestors!”

Speaking to Rooz, Ms Sotudeh continued, “One cannot be indifferent to what is going on. The reality is that all the victims are women. Another issue is the profile of the women who were attacked. Based on what government officials have said the victims were among social-economic activists. The victims were young women who were in their cars between 7 and 7:30pm, which indicates that they are social and educated who are present and active in society. It is important to understand why this type of women are attacked.”

She then turns to the way the government has responded to the attacks and says, “Officials and state agencies have accused the perpetrators of committing these acts because they were spies and Zionist agents or that they did this because of personal issues. How can there be such a wide range of motives for this? The only thing that officials have not said is that this violence is being perpetrated because of grievances and complaints over the issue of the enforcement of Islamic morals. The motives that the government presents for such acts are unacceptable. How can there be personal reasons for the eight acid attacks in a very large city like Isfahan? In other words all of these personal issues culminated in their frustrations in one month? When they provide such information to the public, they plant the seeds of distrust. We now call on the government of Rouhani to protect our right to hold peaceful protests. We think fighting violence in society is part of the government’s duties and those of the judiciary. Just as some of the responsibility of confronting it lies with the public. People’s pride and dignity has been attached and they want to hold peaceful gatherings and condemn violence and acid throwing. It is not acceptable to people that they are not allowed to express their concerns through peaceful gatherings. The constitution specifically says that peaceful gatherings are legal unless they are against Islam. So the question is are protests against acid-attacks un-Islamic or are the acts of acid throwing un-Islamic?