Iran woman gets 20-year term for taking off hijab in public

An Iranian woman has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for taking off her headscarf in public.

Forty-two-year-old Shaparak Shajarizadeh was arrested in February two months after pictures of her standing in a busy street in the capital Tehran went public.

Shajarizadeh had been waving a scarf in protesting against the compulsory hijab law.

After being released on bail in April she told Amnesty International that she had been charged with “incitement to indecency and prostitution”.

An Iranian court also sentenced another protestor to two years in prison on charges of “incitement to indecency by taking off the headscarf in public”, “committing indecent acts” and “appearing in public places without the headscarf”.

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