June 17, 2016
The Zayandeh River that wends its way through Esfahan has dried up much of the year for the past decade because women fail to cover themselves properly, according to the city’s Friday prayers leader.
It appears that local women are dressing so hit the river just sizzles and evaporates.
In a sermon last week, Yusef Tabatabai-nejad encouraged the morality police to crack down on “improper veiling.”
He said: “My office has received photos of women next to the dry Zayandeh River dressed as if they are in Europe. It is these sorts of acts that cause the river to dry up even further,” the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted him as saying.
“I tell the Communications Ministry to clamp down on the instigators of the networks encouraging immodesty. If you don’t do so, then you will have failed to carry out your duty. The Communications Ministry can discover and suffocate these individuals.
“If we see a sin, it’s useless that we only bicker about it. The police can use the hezbollahi forces to carry out their responsibility to root out vice,” he said. The hezbollahi forces are gangs of street toughs with a propensity for beating up people they do not like
In December, the cleric sermonized that women should stay at home while men work.
“Why do people always insist that women work, although so many of our men are unemployed?” In an Islamic country, men should support women and not the other way round, he said.
He accused President Rohani of pursuing policies that promote women, including encouraging them to work in politics.
Working women have gained economic independence and this has led to an increase in the divorce rate, Tabatabai-nejad said. He suggested a ban on women working in ministries, in companies or as store clerks.
