Sadiqeh Wesmaghi’s complaint of pressure and torture in prison in a letter to the United Nations committee
Sadiqeh Wesmaghi, an Islamic scholar and critic of the Islamic Republic, wrote in a letter to several United Nations committees and human rights organizations that she has been imprisoned for over forty days on charges of removing her headscarf and has been enduring imprisonment with torture and harsh treatment due to her visual impairment.
In this letter, she writes that she has spent most of her life studying, teaching, and researching in the field of religion, especially Islamic jurisprudence. The result of her research on women’s attire is that pious women are not obligated to cover their hair within the framework of Islamic law. Independent researchers in the field of religion also hold the same belief. For decades, many Iranian women have opposed the mandatory hijab law, and I too have removed my headscarf in protest against this law and the suppression of women and their dignity.