Iran arrests five people over 'indecent' skateboarding event with girls seen not wearing headscarves

Iran arrests five people over 'indecent' skateboarding event with girls seen not wearing headscarves
Five people have been arrested in Iran following a 'western-style' skateboarding event where teenage girls and boys mixed freely and girls were seen without headscarves.
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None of the participating teenagers were detained, according to an Iranian justice chief [source: Getty]

Iranian state media reported on Friday that authorities have detained five people accused of organising a skateboarding event where dozens of teenagers mixed freely and girls didn't wear headscarves.

A video of the “Go Skateboarding Day” held off a boulevard in the southern city of Shiraz went viral on social media, prompting anger among conservative religious authorities in a country where the wearing of a Muslim hijab is mandatory for all women and teenage girls.

The state TV report said the provincial judiciary was looking into the event, while the state-run IRNA news agency reported that a rally to oppose Western-style gatherings of teenagers would be held after Friday prayers in Shiraz. 

MENA
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Iran is a theocracy where clerics control nearly all the levers of power and seek to dominate all aspects of life. They have long viewed such activities as part of a “soft war” by the West against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian law bans women from appearing in public without covering their hair with a hijab — a strict dress code imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.