An Iranian man has been caught on film threatening to shove a tear gas canister down a woman’s throat for refusing to wear a headscarf.
In the footage the man can be seen approaching the woman with the canister in his hand while other people try to stop him.
The woman can be heard asking him what he’s doing with the canister before he responds: ‘Yes, I’m going to shove tear gas down your throat.
‘Then you won’t be able to speak for two days.’
But instead of attacking the woman the man then walks off, climbs into his car and drives away up the street.
It is not known exactly where in Iran the footage was captured, but it was uploaded to Twitter by Masih Alinejad who founded the White Wednesdays and My Stealthy Freedom campaigns.
Both campaigns aim to fight against laws which require women to wear the hijab in Iran and fight for women’s rights generally.
After the video appeared online, the My Stealthy Freedom Twitter account posted a message from the woman involved, which said: ‘Look at this man.
‘He was driving a car without a license plate. He was even carrying tear gas with him. His mission is to impose hijab on women.
‘The only thing that occurred to me at that moment was to take a picture of this ruthless person. These people are the Iranian version of ISIS.’
The video comes after Shapark Shajarizadeh, 42, who was arrested in February after removing her headscarf in Tehran, claimed she has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
She posted on her personal website that she had been jailed for ‘opposing the compulsory hijab’ and ‘waving a white flag of peace in the street.’
Shajarizadeh was released on bail in late April after Amnesty reported that she had been charged with ‘inciting corruption and prostitution’.
Her current whereabouts are unknown, and there has been no immediate comment from Iranian officials.
In a video posted on Twitter, Ms Shajarizadeh said she had fled the country upon being released on bail because she feared for her own safety.
In the month of February alone, Iranian police arrested 29 women for removing their headscarves in public as part of a campaign known as ‘White Wednesdays.’
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer who represented Shajarizadeh and other women, was arrested last month.
The Islamic dress code, in place since the 1979 revolution, considers veiling obligatory for any female above 13 in Iran and says they should cover themselves from head to toe, while disavowing any figure-hugging clothes.
Breaking the rules can result in fines of up to 500,000 rials (£17) and up to two months in prison.
President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising a more moderate stance, has previously said it is not the job of police to enforce religious rules such as those forcing women to cover their hair.
But in April 2016, officials said there were 7,000 undercover morality police reporting on things like ‘bad hijab’ – a blanket term usually referring to un-Islamic dress by women.
Figures are rarely given, but Tehran’s traffic police said in late 2015 they had dealt with 40,000 cases of bad hijab in cars, where women often let their headscarves drop around their necks.
These cases generally led to fines and a temporary impounding of the vehicle.
Source » dailymail