[Today’s Prayer] Iran sentences ‘74 lashes’ to a woman who didn’t wear a hijab… Regulations are getting stricter

Britain's Telegraph and others reported on the 7th (local time) that the Iranian government administered 74 lashes to a woman in her thirties who refused to wear a hijab.

The Telegraph reported that an Iranian court sentenced Roya Heshmati, 33, to 74 lashes in accordance with the law and Islamic law (Sharia) for violating public morals by not wearing the hijab in public. The court also imposed a fine of 12 million rials (about 33,000 won) on him.

Heshmati was arrested in the capital Tehran for not wearing a hijab. However, the flogging of a woman for not wearing a hijab became an even more hot topic because it is unusual even in Iran.

Iran, which was once so liberal that it was called the 'Europe of the Middle East', made it mandatory for all women to wear a hijab after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The ‘moral police’ organized by the government cracks down on and punishes citizens’ clothing.

In 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman wearing a hijab with some of her hair exposed, died mysteriously after her arrest, sparking large-scale protests. The protests started in Sanandaj, her Kurdish residential area, and spread throughout Iran and around the world. At the time, the Iranian government brutally suppressed the protesters. As a result, over 500 people died and over 20,000 were arrested.

Afterwards, the government strengthened crackdowns by installing surveillance cameras on the streets and suspending operations at stores that accept customers who do not wear hijabs. Iran's parliament plans to increase regulations, including adopting a bill in September last year that would impose up to 10 years in prison for not wearing a hijab.

(omitted)

Source: Newsis

4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:4-5)

Lord, we hear about a sister who was flogged 74 times and fined according to Islamic law for not wearing the hijab in public.

May the kindness and goodness of Jesus Christ, who personally wipes away our tears, comfort this sister’s heart and heal her body and mind.

In Iran, an invisible war continues against the souls that are seeking freedom.

Lord, may not the law of Islam, but the power of the Gospel be proclaimed among the Iranian souls who are thirsty for freedom and the Word of God.

Just as Saul, who persecuted Christians, was stripped of his faults when he met Jesus and lived for the kingdom of God, may Iran be stripped of all its sins and faults that seek to oppose God and become a nation renewed only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, being equipped by the healing and renewing power of Christ, may the land of Iran and all nations be prepared as a holy new creation and new wineskin!