WATCH: Iranian harasser tells woman she ‘deserves rape’ for not wearing hijab
An Iranian man unleashed a tirade of abuse against an unveiled woman on the streets of Tehran, telling her that she “deserved to be raped.”
Iranian activist Masih Ali Nejad, who has been living in the United States for years, told Al Arabiya English that she filmed her encounter with the man and posted it to Instagram, garnering more than 1 million views.
In the caption, Nejad wrote: “This pro-regime vigilante in Iran harassed me in the street. He said women like me who don't wear hijab are a dishonorable. This is how I filmed his insults. We women of Iran have had to endure these people for 4 decades. I asked him "Am I the one who is dishonorable or Saeed Tusi, a famous Quran preacher, who molested young kids in Iran, but still roams free because he is connected to the regime"? #MyCameraIsMyWeapon”
She said the daily harassment by such “pro-regime vigilantes” on the streets of Iran championed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s recent controversial comments on the international #MeToo campaign.
In a speech published on the leader's official Twitter account, Khamenei said that by wearing a hijab, women could have prevented the string of sexual abuse cases in the US and other western countries that have inspired the global #Metoo campaign.
In protest, Nejad is using the #MyCameraIsMyWeapon hashtag to respond to Khamenei’s controversial adoption of the #MeToo phenomenon.
She posted another video showing a van trying to run over students at Azad University in Tehran, after a number of them gathered in a protest against repression and forced hijab.
