Protesters “mentally ill”? Court ruling causes commotion in Iran Greece: At least one person died when a bridge collapsed

As part of Iran’s numerous protests, numerous people have been arrested since last September, including a number of prominent figures in the country. Among them are the three actresses Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi and Leila Bolukat.

All three had illegally presented themselves in public without a headscarf: 61-year-old Bayegan had appeared at a film screening wearing a cap instead of a headscarf, 44-year-old Samadi had worn a hat at a funeral and 42-year-old Bolukat posted photos on social media without a headscarf.

This week, a court in Tehran made a psychological diagnosis of the three actresses, which caused a stir: the judges determined that Bayegan, Samadi and Bolukat were “mentally ill, antisocial and antisocial”. As a result, the three women now have to undergo regular psychological treatment. This comes on top of previous sentences: Bayegan received a two-year suspended prison sentence, Bolukat a six-month prison sentence and a two-year work ban. Samadi got away without jail time – but banned from accessing her phone or social media for six months.

Leading psychologists wonder: ‘unscientific and strange’

The fact that the three actresses are now also being described as “mentally ill, anti-family and anti-social” has caused astonishment – not least to the country’s leading psychologists. The heads of four leading psychiatric commissions in Iran wrote an open letter to Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei questioning the verdict. The letter was published by Iranian media on June 20.

The psychiatrists criticize that such a judgment should never have been passed by a court. They say:

In addition, it is extremely questionable how the court justified the diagnosis. “What the verdict calls an argument for antisocial personality disorder is illogical and unconvincing,” the psychiatrists write. The “mentally ill” and “hostile to family” diagnoses are also “unscientific and strange” from a specialist’s point of view. The letter calls for the controversial verdict to be quashed.

motivation unclear

Why the judges decided to make a psychiatric diagnosis in the first place is unclear. Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, a lawyer from Tehran, told Radio Farda that the verdict showed that the judges “did not fully understand the principles of the law”. It is also possible that the court was “particularly nervous and upset” because of the three actresses and therefore decided on a particularly humiliating sentence.

Protests in Iran have been going on since last September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested and fatally injured by state vice squads. Amini is said to have violated the state headscarf law. The young woman’s story went viral and sparked ongoing protests in Iran against the country’s government. More than 20,000 people have already been arrested during the protests, according to reports from human rights groups.

(dab)