A series of acid attacks on women in the Iranian city of Isfahan starting sometime around October 2014, has raised fears and prompted rumours that the victims were targeted for not being properly veiled. As of October 27, at least eight and as many as 25 such attacks have occurred in Isfahan. At least one woman is dead and another (26-year-old Sohelia Jorkesh), has lost the sight from at least one eye (doctors are attempting to save her other eye). Many more have severe burns to their hands and faces.
Contents
The attacks have generally been carried out by assailants on motorbikes wearing helmets with visors down to hide their faces, who fling acid into the faces of women who are walking or in automobiles.
Motivation
While many Iranians believe the attackers are conservative Islamist vigilantes trying to intimidate women into wearing (what the vigilantes deem) modest dress, Iranian officials deny this and have been called "particularly angry with any suggestion that attackers were driven by religious extremism, or that victims were targeted because they wore clothing that could be deemed inappropriate in the eyes of hardliners".
Iranian liberals believe the attacks are connected to a parliamentary measure passed October 19 that “enjoins good and forbids wrong” by providing protection for vigilantes patrolling the streets and helping enforce the country’s strict social mores on public dress or behavior. The government Press TV has quoted president Rouhani as warning against making “baseless accusations” against "any particular person or group before the real culprits are arrested". One "semi-official" plainclothes group, Ansar-e Hezbollah, which has conducted 'morality patrols' to enforce Islamic dress in the past, blamed "the enemy" attempting to "strike a blow against security," for the acid attacks.
However, according to the executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran Hadi Ghaemi, the attacks come "in the midst of a year-long verbal attack by conservative forces in Iran attacking women for their clothes,” giving “verbal warnings and calls that blood must be shed. These are not isolated incidents.”
Arrests
Iranian authorities have arrested four people suspected of throwing acid on women, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency. But Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli stated that authorities don’t have sufficient evidence to charge any of the suspects in connection to the attacks. As of 5 November 2014, no one has been charged with the attacks.
Protests
Protest rallies to denounce the attacks have been held in Isfahan and the capital Tehran. Mindful of past crackdowns, however, the demonstrators generally disperse quickly when confronted by police. On October 27, hundreds of Iranian security forces thwarted a planned protest in Tehran to demand tougher government action against the attacks.
Government anger at media
Four journalists and a photographer from the Islamic Students' News Agency were arrested after their organization covered the attacks, according to Al-Monitor. Two of the journalists have been released, but as of October 28 the others (Zahra Mohammadi, the head of Isna’s office in Isfahan, and Sanam Farsi, its social affairs editor) were reported to still be in custody.
Interior Minister Fazli declared in late October that “Foreign media are exaggerating about the acid attacks.” On October 28, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, Hassan Firouzabadi, said the impact of some media reports was “worse than acid attacks”. Iran’s prosecutor general, Ibrahim Raeesi, has denied that the acid attacks were linked in any way to the state’s policing of morality.
According to Jason Stern of the Committee to Protect Journalists, “this case deals with everything Iranian hardliners can’t stand: critical media coverage, street protests, women’s rights and government accountability.”