Woman savagely whipped 74 times for refusing to cover her head in public

A young woman in Iran was brutally lashed 74 times by the regime’s morality police for not wearing a hijab in the street.

Roya Heshmati, a vocal critic of the compulsory headscarf, was punished after a photograph was published a few months ago showing her in Tehran with her head uncovered.

The Kurdish-Iranian defiantly removed her headscarf as she arrived at court to be whipped and had to be restrained so officers could put it back on.

A photo shared on social media shows the painful injuries the whip left on her back.

Iranian authorities said the flogging was because she had been ‘encouraging permissiveness’.

In a post that has since been taken down, Ms Heshmati said she ‘did not yield’, adding: ‘I maintained my stance and did not wear the hijab.’

The officer carrying out the punishment told her to put the headscarf back on and when she refused he threatened to add another 74 lashes to her sentence.

Ms Heshmati is a vocal critic of the law that requires woman to wear a hijab

In the end, two women handcuffed Ms Heshmati and forcibly put a hijab on her, according to independent Iranian media.

In her post she compared the room where she received the lashes to a ‘medieval torture chamber’.

She wrote: ‘They opened the iron door. The room had cement walls. There was a small bed in the corner with iron shackles on both sides… A medieval torture chamber.’

Iran has kept its strict headscarf rules despite widespread and violent protests across the country after the death of 22-year-ol Mahsa Amini.

Ms Amini, also a Kurdish-Iranian woman, was stopped by morality police and, according to reports, officers beat her as she was taken to a ‘re-education centre’ causing injuries that led to her death.

Ms Heshmati is seen walking on the streets of Tehran without a head scarf

Authorities blame her death on an underlying health condition – but her family say she had none.

Her death led to public outrage and both men and women took to the streets to protest against the Islamic regime, with many women burning their headscarves or waving them in the air.

Hundreds of people were killed and thousands arrested and detained during the demonstrations, which authorities were quick to call ‘riots’ sparked by foreigners.

Ms Heshmati’s injuries after the barbaric flogging and a photo of her wearing a headscarf

Seven protesters have also been executed, after what one UN expert called ‘sham trials marred by torture allegations’.

Morality police patrols were temporarily paused after the protests and authorities tried to enforce the rules using other measures. However, the patrols were re-introduced around six months ago.

But it’s believed far more women are defying the headscarf law today than they were before Ms Amini died.

In September, a year since her death, a Western diplomat in Tehran estimated that across the country, an average of about 20% of women – often from the younger generation – are going outside without a hijab, the BBC reported.

Speaking at the time, one of them – a 20-year-old music student in Tehran – said: ‘Things have changed so much since last year. I still can’t believe the things I now have the courage to do. We’ve become so much bolder and braver.’

The Kurdish-Iranian compared the room she was whipped in to a ‘medieval torture chamber’

She described being scared to her bones when she walks past the morality police with no hijab, but said she keeps her head up and pretends she hasn’t seen them.

The student did explain, however, that she’s not reckless and wouldn’t go so far as to wear something like shorts and always has a scarf in her bag in case things get serious.

Less than a month after she spoke, a 16-year-old girl died in Tehran after allegedly being assaulted by the morality police for not wearing a hijab.

Armita Geravand, 16, suffered ‘severe injuries’ and spent weeks in a coma after an altercation at Meydan-E Shohada station.

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights called for an independent international investigation citing ‘the practice of the Islamic Republic in concealing the truth’.