Seyyed Youssef Tabatabi-Nejad, above, is a ‘prominent’ imam . . . and a misogynistic prat.
Last year he caused outrage by advising women to stay at home and take care of their husbands, and even condoned the use of violence against women who disregard traditional Islamic dress codes.
Well, he’s back on his high horse over “immodesty” – this time blaming women for drying up the Zayandeh-rud river.
According to this report, Tabatabi-Nejad, who leads Friday prayers in Isfahan, encouraged the country’s morality police to crack down on “improper veiling” and suggested women’s immodest clothing was having an impact on the environment.
In a sermon this week, he said:
My office has received photos of women next to the dry Zayandeh-rud River pictured as if they are in Europe. It is these sorts of acts that cause the river to dry up even further. The Communications Ministry can discover and suffocate these individuals.
“Suffocate” them? Well, he is, after all, a Muslim cleric so we can safely assume that he wants them dead.
He added
If we see a sin it’s useless that we only bicker about it. The police force can use the [paramilitary] Hezbollahi forces in carrying out their operations to root out vice.
Iran has seen an increase in the number of “morality” police and crackdowns on women failing to veil correctly, playing music too loudly in their cars or acting in a way that is perceived to be un-Islamic by the authorities.
The imam’s comments have been criticised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with a member of the group’s foreign affairs committee, Afchine Alavi, commenting:
This reflects the typical mindset of the theocratic regime ruling Iran which is no different to the culture of Daesh (Isis). Misogyny is a cornerstone of this mindset. The regime’s increasing isolation with each passing day results in more brutal methods of suppression being employed by the regime.
Clerical lunacy is, of course, not confined to Islamic states. At the beginning of June, an ultra-orthodox Jewish leader issued a decree banning girls aged five and older in some areas of Israel from riding bicycles – claiming it is “immodest”.
The rabbi of the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Nahloat distributed the decree to his followers in synagogues across the area.
He had said young girls riding bicycles could “cause serious damage to their modesty” and that bicycle seats caused young girls to sit in a way men found “provocative”.
Hat tip: John Gresham