Breaking January 10, 2025: Iran Resumes Brutal Crackdown on Iranian Women Over Hijabs

Arab News Tehran reports that Iran’s judiciary has ordered police to “firmly punish” people who violate the country’s hijab law, a news agency reported Tuesday, January 10.

Public demonstrations have swept Iran since a 22-year-old ethnic Kurd Mahsa Amini died in police custody on September 16. Amini refused to adhere to the hijab mandate for women.

In a hopeful sign to protesters, Iran’s morality police charged with enforcing hijab rules have been less visible in Iran in recent months.

That tolerance is over today, with Mehr news agency reporting that the prosecutor general had issued a directive in which “police were ordered to firmly punish any hijab violations.”

Charlie Hebdo Strikes Hard For Iranian Protesters, 8 Years After Paris Al-Qaida Attack

France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine, a French satirical weekly magazine, has again provoked the Iranians, publishing cartoons mocking Iran’s ruling clerics and their aggression against the protesters.

Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 people in Paris on January 7, 2015. Today the irreverent publication operates from a secret location with round-the-clock police protection, continuing its refusal to bow down to right-wing, religious zealots of any ideology, not only Islam.

As France 24 notes, in the first issue published after the 2015 massacre, Charlie Hebdo’s cover proclaimed:

"They have weapons. Screw them, we have champagne."

Iranian Activist Faezeh Hashemi Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

In a separate announcement, Faezeh Hashemi, activist daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to five years in prison today. Faezeh Hashemi was charged with “propaganda against the system,” according to the semi-official ISNA news agency, writes Arab News.

Iran has executed four people over the protests sparked by Amini’s death in the custody of the morality police. Another 13 have been sentenced to execution.