According to local media reports on Sunday, an Iranian bank manager was fired from his post for the strangest reason: he was serving a woman who did not wear the country’s mandatory veil, a witness to the protests.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the law required all women to wear a headscarf covering their head and neck.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency quoted Deputy Governor Ahmad Hajizade as saying: “A bank manager in Qom province who was banking on an undisguised woman on Thursday was fired from his post on the governor’s orders.”
The dismissal of the bank’s director comes amid protests that erupted in Iran following the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman after she was arrested in Tehran for not following Iran’s strict dress code.
“The video of this woman wearing a veil sparked a strong reaction on social media,” the Mehr news agency reported.
Hajizadeh said, “Enforcement of the law on wearing the hijab in public institutions is the responsibility of its director,” the agency said.
The state owns the vast majority of banks in Iran.
Dozens of Iranians, mostly protesters and members of the security forces, have been killed since the current protests began, and thousands have been arrested, according to Iranian authorities, who did not provide exact figures.
Iranian leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday, Saturday, that members of the Basij forces “sacrificed their lives” in what he called “riots,” referring to the wave of protests that erupted after the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, after police in custody in September.
Protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the vice police on September 16 have become one of the boldest challenges the Tehran government has faced since the 1979 revolution.
