Iran Police Deny Acid Attack Links With Hijab Law

Attempts to link recent acid attacks on Iranian women with the country's existing law on the hijab are an "intrigue of the foreign powers," Iran's police chief, Ismael Ahmadi Moghaddam, said Thursday.



Women in Iran are required by law to be covered from head to toe.



Moghaddam's remarks came a day after hundreds of women rallied outside the Department of Justice building Wednesday to protest against the attacks on young women in Isfahan in recent weeks by unidentified men. 



The protesters had accused security officials and Iran's attorney general of not having adequately investigated the assaults.



The demonstrators had called for an end to the acid attacks and showed support for the victims.



"The attacks were held by just one person and overall only eight such attacks have occurred in the last eight years," the police said.



Abbas Ali Mansouri, an Iranian lawmaker, said the attacks were carried out by powers that wanted to impose headscarves by force. He described the assaults as Iran's version of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or the ISIL, which is accused of committing vicious attacks on women in areas under its control in Iraq and Syria.



Also, an Isfahan resident, Haniyeh H., said she threatened over the phone by an unknown man, who warned her she would be attacked too if she did not wear the hijab, the Iranian ISNA news agency said. 



The attackers allegedly threw acid on the women's faces because they had not covered their heads properly.



The country's president, Hassan Rouhani, promised during the 2013 election campaign that he would restrict the power of Iran's vice squads to prevent them from doing headscarf control in the streets. 



www.aa.com.tr/en - Tahran