Iran’s Islamists terrorise young women with acid

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jan. 04 – In the latest “acid attack” by radical Islamists on young women accused of ignoring the country’s strict dress regulations, two female university students had acid splashed on their faces in the town of Shahroud, north-eastern Iran. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 04 – In the latest “acid attack” by radical Islamists on young women accused of ignoring the country’s strict dress regulations, two female university students had acid splashed on their faces in the town of Shahroud, north-eastern Iran.

The two women, aged 21 and 22, study geography in Shahroud’s Open University. Unidentified assailants travelling on a motorbike moved next to them in Ferdowsi Street and threw acid on their faces as they were walking. The attackers immediately left the scene and have not been arrested.

Radical Islamists operating under the umbrella of the paramilitary Bassij force and Ansar-e Hezbollah have stepped up their campaign against the “mal-veiling” of women and girls since the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian President regularly addresses meetings of these Islamic vigilantes and praises their efforts “to purify the Islamic Republic of the vestiges of corrupt Western culture”.