“Medieval torture chamber”: Iranian woman describes flogging in detail

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The flogging of a 33-year-old woman sparked outrage in Iran. As human rights activists reported on Saturday, the Iranian judiciary punished Kurdish activist Roja Heschmati in the capital Tehran with a total of 74 lashes.

The case is apparently causing outrage on social media in Iran. Heschmati himself drew attention to the execution of the sentence on Facebook and described it impressively. The Iranian judiciary has confirmed the execution of the whipping. This happened within the framework of the law.

Heshmati is a fierce critic of the Islamic regime’s hijab law. In a post on January 3 on her Facebook profile, which is no longer publicly visible, she described her resistance until the last moment. Even when she entered the court, she did not wear a hijab. The flogging would also take place in court.

Also against the executioner

Both her lawyer and a bailiff advised her to put on her headscarf ‘to avoid problems’. But she, Heschmati reminded her, had “come especially for the eyelashes and I didn’t want to give in.”

The executioner who carried out the flogging asked her to put on the hijab again. She refused, even though the man threatened her with severe and more whipping. “I kept my posture and didn’t wear a hijab,” the young woman said.

Finally, two women came and forcibly put a headscarf on her and handcuffed her so that she could not tear off the headscarf.

“Fully equipped medieval torture chamber”

Heshamti described the room where the punishment was carried out as a bed with handcuffs and iron straps on either side. There was also an iron frame that looked like a large donkey and in the middle of it were also handcuffs and an iron band. “It looked like a fully equipped medieval torture chamber,” Heschmati wrote.

Judge finds case ‘unpleasant’

She sang softly – “in the name of woman, in the name of life, the clothes of slavery are torn” – as she was beaten. She did not express any pain or scream – and immediately took off her headscarf as she left the room.

Even the judge “admitted that he was uncomfortable with the case,” Heschmati said. He ‘suggested that she go abroad to live a different life. I reaffirmed our commitment to resistance. He insisted on obeying the law. I have called on him to fulfill his duties while we continue our resistance.”

13 year prison sentence contested

According to the newspaper ‘Shargh’, Heshmati was arrested in April 2023 after publishing a photo without a headscarf, which is mandatory in Iran. She then had to defend herself against numerous legal accusations. A prison sentence of more than thirteen years had been successfully challenged, her lawyer Masiar Tatati told the newspaper. A punishment of whipping for moral offenses remained.

Extreme harshness towards young people

More than a year ago, the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini sparked serious protests in Iran. For months, young people in particular took to the streets to demonstrate against the Islamic system of rule.

Amini fell into a coma after an allegedly violent encounter with the infamous moral guardians and died shortly afterwards. The state responded with extreme severity. More and more women are now resisting the obligation to wear a headscarf.

Source: Blick