In the northern province of Semnan, cleric Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti spotted a woman in the street who was not sufficiently covered to his liking. When he ordered her to cover herself up, she beat him to a pulp.
“I fell on my back on the floor,” Beheshti said. “I don’t know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me.” Since the 1979 revolution that brought Shiite Muslim religious leaders to power, women in Iran have been required to cover their hair and body curves in public with head-scarves and loose-fitting coats, to protect religious values and “preserve society’s morals and security.”
