February 17, 2023
The Friday prayer leader in Karaj says the reason for drought in Iran is the large number of women who do not cover their hair. By that standard, of course, almost every other country in the world should be getting even less rain than Iran.
Mohammad-Mehdi Hosseini-Hamedani, the Friday prayer imam of Karaj, said the hejab requirement must be enforced strictly in society.
Describing anyone who unveils in public as an “enemy,” he emphasized that all such people must be confronted by the state. “It is not possible to imagine that we are living in an Islamic country when we enter some institutions, shopping malls, pharmacies, etc.!” he said, calling on the authorities to warn shops and malls that serve women who have removed their headscarves and close them down if warnings do not suffice.
This contradicts what Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi has said publicly. He said women who fail to observe the dress code should not be viewed as enemies.
Hamedani’s remarks are not the first time that the Islamic Republic’s hardliners have linked Islamic rituals to drought or other natural disasters.
Ahmad Alam-ol-hoda, a senior firebrand cleric who is the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi, earlier called on Iranians to say prayers for rain to solve the problem of drought in the country.
Prosecutor General Moham-mad-Jafar Montazeri in 2019 said, “The judicial system does not allow women to unveil in public, because it causes natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes in the country.”
Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad, Khamenehi’s representative in Esfahan, said in 2016 that women who unveiled and took photos “like Europeans” are the reason the city’s river, the Zayandeh-Rud, dried up. Actually, it dried up because the government diverted the river’s water.