DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: An Iranian woman who removed her obligatory Islamic headscarf out of protest in December says she has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Shapark SHajjarizadeh posted on her personal website that she had been jailed for “opposing the compulsory hijab” and “waving a white flag of peace in the street.”
There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials.
Police in Iran arrested 29 people in February for removing their headscarves as part of a campaign known as “White Wednesdays.” Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer who represented SHajjarizadeh and other women, was arrested last month.
SHajjarizadeh, 42, was released on bail in late April. Her current whereabouts were unknown.
In Iran, women showing their hair in public face penalties ranging from a $25 fine to prison time.
Iranian woman who protested headscarf gets 20-year sentence
Iranian woman who protested headscarf gets 20-year sentence
- Police in Iran arrested 29 people in February for removing their headscarves
Researchers find 10,000-year-old rock art site in Sinai
- The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean
- Some engravings reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities
CAIRO: Archeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
The previously unknown site on the Umm Irak Plateau features a 100-meter-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities “has uncovered one of the most important new archeological sites, of exceptional historical and artistic value,“the ministry said in a statement.
Its chronological diversity makes it “an open-air natural museum,” according to the council’s secretary-general, Hisham El-Leithy.
The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean.
Some engravings “reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities,” the ministry said.
Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time.
These “provide further evidence of the succession of civilizations that have inhabited this important part of Egypt over the millennia,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
He described the discovery as a “significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities.”
The site is located in southern Sinai, where Cairo is undertaking a vast megaproject aimed at attracting mass tourism to the mountain town of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.
