Tehran police close Turkish Airlines office after its employees defy Iran’s headscarf law

Iran's riot police forces stand on a street amid the implementation of the new hijab surveillance in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2023. (REUTERS)
Iran's riot police forces stand on a street amid the implementation of the new hijab surveillance in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2023. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 10 July 2024
Follow

Tehran police close Turkish Airlines office after its employees defy Iran’s headscarf law

Tehran police close Turkish Airlines office after its employees defy Iran’s headscarf law
  • The fracas at the Tehran office of the Turkish Airlines took place on the same day as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on his win in Iran’s presidential runoff last week

TEHRAN, Iran: Police in Iran shut down the Turkish Airlines office in the capital of Tehran, Iranian media reported Tuesday, after female employees there apparently refused to wear the mandatory headscarf, or hijab, in an act of defiance of the country’s law.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said police officers went to the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran on Monday to issue what is called a first warning over the “non-observance of hijab” by the company’s employees.
However, the employees — who are Iranian nationals — reportedly “made trouble for the police officers,” prompting the closure. The Tasnim report said police subsequently sealed the office over the employees’ behavior.
According to Tasnim, the Turkish Airlines office will be allowed to reopen on Wednesday and resume business as usual, something that the police did not confirm. The report further said that police would not seal any business due to the non-observance of hijab but issue first warnings.
There was no immediate comment from the Turkish Airlines over the incident in Tehran.
An open defiance of the headscarf law erupted into mass protests across Iran following the September 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police. While those demonstrations appear largely to have cooled, the choice by some Iranian women to remain uncovered in the street poses a new challenge to the country’s theocracy.
Iranian authorities have over the past years shuttered hundreds of businesses across the country — from shops, restaurants to pharmacies and offices — for quietly allowing their female employees to forgo wearing the hijab.
That reinforcement was intensified in the months running up to Iran’s presidential election in June to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash a month earlier.
The fracas at the Tehran office of the Turkish Airlines took place on the same day as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on his win in Iran’s presidential runoff last week.
Pezeshkian bested hard-liner Saeed Jalili in the election by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Tehran Prosecutor Ali Salehi as saying that no legal proceedings or ruling had been issued regarding the sealing the Turkish Airlines office in Tehran.
Iran and Turkiye have maintained good relations and in 2023, the volume of bilateral trade between the two stood at $5.4 billion. Turkiye is also a popular tourist destination for Iranians, with some 2.5 million visiting last year.
Turkish Airlines is a favored carrier among Iranians because of the shorter travel time to the United States and Canada, compared to other long-haul flights from Arab countries in the Arabian Gulf.

 


Gaza, Lebanon conflicts see civilian casualties at highest point in over a decade

People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
Updated 11 sec ago
Follow

Gaza, Lebanon conflicts see civilian casualties at highest point in over a decade

People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
  • Israeli military action responsible for more than half of all non-combatants killed or injured in bombings and explosions in 2024
  • Last year saw casualty figures increase globally by more than two-thirds, with airstrikes the leading cause of death and injury

LONDON: The number of civilian casualties worldwide caused by bombings or explosions during conflicts has reached its highest point in over a decade, driven in particular by Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

The monitoring group Action on Armed Violence said it had identified 61,353 non-combatants killed or wounded in 2024, up 67 percent on 2023. Of those figures, 25,116 were fatalities, a 51 percent increase.

AOAV said Israeli military activity in Gaza and Lebanon was responsible for 55 percent of all civilians killed or wounded by explosions, at 33,910 people.

Gaza alone accounted for 39 percent of all casualties recorded, with 14,435 killed in explosions and 9,314 injured.

The civil war in Sudan has also contributed to the uptick in numbers, as well as 11,693 civilians killed or wounded by explosions in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Spikes in casualties between 2013 and 2017 were due to the conflict in Syria, but the 2024 total was more than double that previous high-water mark. 

The top cause of death and injury from explosions in 2024 was airstrikes — a tactic Israel has used extensively in Gaza and Lebanon.

The number of casualties caused this way more than doubled from 2023, with 30,804 people affected.

AOAV Executive Director Iain Overton said: “2024 has been a catastrophic year for civilians caught in explosive violence, particularly in Gaza, Ukraine and Lebanon. The international community cannot ignore the scale of harm caused.”

The true number of people affected by bombings and explosions is likely to be far higher, as AOAV bases its figures on English-language accounts of incidents.

For instance, where AOAV was only able to verify 14,435 people killed by explosions in Gaza, local health authorities put the number at 23,600.

A report last week in medical journal The Lancet estimated that casualties in Gaza in 2024 could be as much as 40 percent higher than those reported by the enclave’s authorities. 


Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion
Updated 41 min 50 sec ago
Follow

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam said on Tuesday his hands are extended to everyone, in a gesture to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group that accused opponents of seeking to exclude it by nominating him for the post.
Salam, nominated by a majority of Lebanese lawmakers on Monday, said he opposed exclusion and supported unity. “This is my sincere call, and my hands are extended to everyone,” he said.
Salam, who was serving as president of the International Court of Justice before his designation as prime minister, cited priorities including rebuilding Lebanon from last year’s devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The choice of Salam underlined a major shift in the power balance among Lebanon’s sectarian factions since Hezbollah was pummelled in its conflict with Israel, and its ally in neighboring Syria, Bashar Assad, was
toppled
by rebels.
“Reconstruction isn’t just a promise, but a commitment, and this requires complete implementation of UN Resolution 1701, implementation of all articles of the ceasefire, and imposing the full withdrawal of the Israeli enemy from every inch” of Lebanon, Salam said.
He added that he would work for justice for the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and for depositors whose savings have been frozen inside the Lebanese financial system since its collapse in 2019.
“It is time to begin a new chapter, one that we want to be rooted in justice, security, progress, and opportunity,” Salam said after meeting President Joseph Aoun. 


Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
Updated 14 January 2025
Follow

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
  • Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan

Port Sudan: Sudanese volunteer rescuers said shelling of an area of Omdurman, the capital Khartoum’s twin city just across the Nile River, killed more than 120 people.
The “random shelling” on Monday in western Omdurman resulted in the deaths of 120 civilians, said the Ombada Emergency Response Room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across the war-torn country.
The network described the toll as preliminary and did not specify who was behind the attack.
The rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat “a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries.”
Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war which has left the country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Most of Omdurman is under army control while the RSF holds the capital and part of the greater Khartoum area.
Residents on both sides of the Nile have reported shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel regularly striking homes and civilians.


Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment
Updated 14 January 2025
Follow

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s key nationalist ally urged jailed PKK militant group leader Abdullah Ocalan to explicitly announce the group’s disbandment after his next expected meeting with the country’s pro-Kurdish political party.
The remarks by nationalist Devlet Bahceli came after a rare meeting between officials from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and Ocalan last week.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.


'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations
Updated 14 January 2025
Follow

'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

Dubai: A “final round” of Gaza truce talks is due to start Tuesday in Qatar, said a source briefed on the negotiations aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war after more than 15 months.
“A final round of talks is expected to take place today in Doha,” the souce told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that Tuesday’s meetings “are aimed at finalizing the remaining details of the deal” with the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies, the Middle East envoys for the incoming and outgoing US administrations and Qatar’s prime minister present.
Mediators are to meet separately with Hamas officials, the source said.