A women’s sports coach has been detained in Tehran after performing acrobatic moves in public without wearing a headscarf, a human rights group said on Monday, as Iranian authorities continue to enforce the country’s mandatory hijab law.
The Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said security forces arrested Hanieh Shariati Roudposhti, a taekwondo athlete and gymnastics instructor, on Sunday night and took her to an undisclosed location.
The group cited an informed source as saying the arrest was linked to a street performance deemed in violation of public dress regulations. It added that Shariati was allowed a brief phone call with her family after her detention but that her current whereabouts remain unknown.
Hengaw also said that since her arrest, Shariati’s social media accounts – including an Instagram page with about 160,000 followers – had been taken over by security officials and later disabled, displaying a message linked to Iran’s cyber police.
In recent weeks, senior Iranian officials have repeated calls for stricter enforcement of hijab laws. Iran’s Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad said on Monday that observing Islamic dress codes was a religious duty and that prosecutors were obliged to act firmly against noncompliance.
Earlier this month, Esfahan’s provincial judiciary chief also urged legal action against what he described as “immodest public behavior.”
Iranian clerics and some government figures have defended the hijab law as a social and religious necessity, while critics say it has become a symbol of broader state control over personal freedoms.
