Iranian women without headscarves are “prostitutes” to the US: Ahmad Alam al-Hoda
Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, the Friday prayer imam in Iran’s second-largest city, Mashhad, has said that Iranian women without headscarves were prostitutes to the US, as principlist clerics increase pressure on the government to contain nationwide protests.
“Those who take off their scarves and remove the hijab to make the US happy should know that the US considers them nothing more than the prostitutes who took part in the 1953 coup,” he said, in reference to the CIA coup that toppled Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
“How do you accept losing your chastity to make the US delighted,” he was quoted by local media as saying.
Alam al-Hoda is the supreme leader’s representative in the Khorasan Razavi province and the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi.
His comments followed over 60 days of uninterrupted demonstrations that have rocked the country after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police”. Amini, from the Kurdish city of Saqqez, was visiting Tehran when police arrested her for allegedly not following Islamic dress codes.
Alam al-Hoda’s comments have caused anger among Iranians who have witnessed fierce clashes between the armed forces and protesters, which have killed at least 416 people.
Even people close to the establishment have criticised the supreme leader’s representative, urging him not to add to people’s pain.
“Mr Alam al-Hoda! It is not important how the US decadent politicians look at our women, even if they do not wear the hijab. What matters more is the look that people like you have,” tweeted Mehdi Fazaeli, an official at the supreme leader office’s publication house.
