Iranian NGOs denounce arrest of taekwondo fighter for training without hijab
Hanieh Shariati Roudposhti was reportedly arrested for "failing to observe public dress codes during a public performance" and then released under surveillance, to counter media coverage about her arrest.
Hanieh Shariati Roudposhti Videos.
The NGO Hengaw Organization for Human Rights denounced the arrest of a female taekwondo fighter and coach for performing public displays without a hijab.
Hanieh Shariati Roudposhti was reportedly arrested Sunday in Tehran. According to Hengaw, a source close to the family said Iranian authorities justified the arrest by claiming she was "failing to observe public dress codes during a public performance."
The NGO also claimed that the regime blocked Roudposhti's Instagram account. During a brief call with her family, the detainee reportedly asked her family for help.
Roudposhti reappeared in an Instagram video on Tuesday wearing a hijab, according to the Daily Mail. In that one, she would appear to tell her followers that judicial authorities had deemed several of her social media posts "inappropriate."
A source quoted by the same media outlet reportedly claimed that Roudposhti was ordered to stay at home and not return to work, and that the video had been posted to counter media coverage of her arrest.
The news comes shortly after videos circulated of a group of people dancing to 'Seven Nation Army' in public, including bare-faced women, in the middle of the street in the Iranian capital. The use of a hijab is mandatory and Western music is banned.
The official account of The White Stripes, the band behind the track, shared one of the videos:
