For the past four decades, Iranian women have fought back to regain a few of their basic human freedoms, including what they could study and what jobs they could hold.  But the harsh reality for the 40 million women in Iran is that the law recognizes the husband as the head of the family, and the wife must obey him in all matters, including employment.  Women have been sent to jail for publicly speaking out in favor of equal rights for women.

Women's rights are strictly limited in Iran, to the point where women are even prohibited from watching men's sports in stadiums.

And they know it, which is why so many are finding ways to protest.

The regime is now reacting.  On July 4, 2019, Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri, prosecutor general of Tehran, defended the brutality and repressive measures resorted to by the state security forces against youths, particularly women, under the pretext of "fighting against un-Islamic social behavior."

He expressed his utter fear of the spread of protest and the power of social media in organizing unrest against the repressive conduct of the security forces harassing women under the guise of not wearing the state-mandated veil in the cities.

Crackdown against women is a hallmark of the mullahs' regime in Iran.

"We cannot sacrifice our moral and social securities for some sinister talks or measures by malicious actors on the Internet.  The norm-breakers must know that they cannot smear the police face with their nonsense and baloney making a video clip and posting it on social media," Mullah Montazeri said.

In another event on Wednesday, Hossein Ashtari, commander of the regime's repressive state security forces, echoed Montazeri's comments on defending police brutality against women.

"Some of our agents feel threatened when they deal with mal-vailing," Ashtari said addressing a number of state security forces and IRGC commanders.

He called the protests and reaction by the youths and women against enforcing the mullahs' definition of the "dress code" as "organized," adding that the police must "act with vigilance and caution" when facing such protests.

Reports from inside Iran say health conditions of one of the targeted women, Nazanin Zaghari, have deteriorated in prison.  Meanwhile, Richard Ratcliffe, husband of another targeted Iranian woman, has started the third week of his hunger strike outside the mullah regime's embassy in London.  He wrote this story about his ordeal in the Guardian, here.

Kidnapping and hostage-taking have been some of the main tools of the clerical regime to advance their policies.

The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran once again calls on the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and the Human Rights Council, and other defenders of human rights and women's rights, to condemn decisively the Iranian regime's abduction and hostage-taking.  It further calls for urgent action to free Mrs. Nazanin Zaghari.

It's not just women who are repressed in Iran.  Anyone who openly criticizes the government risks being thrown in jail.  The government also discriminates against ethnic communities such as the country's Arabs, Kurds, Balochis, and Turkmans.

The mullahs are worried and as a result, they've stepping up their thuggery.