December 12, 2014
A suspect has been arrested for stabbing six women in Fars Province over the past week.
The stabbings follow a series of acid attacks against women in next-door Esfahan province. The stabbings were swiftly seen by many as yet another example of vigilante justice aimed at punishing “improper” hejab.
Vigilantism is seen by many as being encouraged by the recent Majlis legislation that authorizes the Pasdaran and Basij to enforce the dress code and not just the uniformed police.
But state officials rushed to dissociate the suspect in the stabbing attacks from the Majlis plan.
Officials said none of the victims was seriously injured. They said all were treated as outpatients and quickly released.
The reformist Sahamnews reported the accused is a member of the Basij, an all-volunteer paramilitary force under the supervision of the Pasdaran.
Mohammad-Reza Rezaei-Kouchi, the deputy from Jahrom, where the stabbings occurred, asserted last week that the knife wielder’s actions were not linked to the dress code and that his motives were “completely personal.”
In an interview with Iran Khabar news website, Kouchi said, “Among the injured, there were women whose Islamic covering was flawless. They were even wearing the chador. Therefore, the claim that the perpetrator’s motivation was to confront poor hejab, to promote virtue and prevent vice, is absolutely incorrect.”
According to Kouchi, the perpetrator is Mohammad Beheshtifar, 22, who is the son of Jalil Beheshtifar, a Pasdar colonel. “When he learned that his son had committed a crime, Colonel Beheshtifar turned his son in,” Kouchi said.
The Sahamnews website, however, said the arrested man is the son of a Basij commander in Ghotbabad, a village about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside Jahrom.
Sahamnews said that in addition to the stabbing of the six women, the windows of a female dormitory at Jahrom University were also broken over the past week, and classes were suspended November 26 as a result of heightened fear among the students.
Except for one woman stabbed in the stomach, the others were all stabbed in the buttocks, according to local news reports. Four or five of the victims were described as university students.
Fars Province Governor-General Mohammad Ahmadi told Fars news the arrested man has a personality disorder. “No group or organization was involved in these incidents and, after arrest, the perpetrator confessed to his crime of attacking and injuring six women in this town,” he said.
On October 16, the news of acid attacks by anonymous assailants on several women in Esfahan was first published. No one has been charged with any of those crimes and no further acid attacks on women have been reported.
