TEHRAN: A woman who publicly removed her veil in protest against Iran’scompulsory headscarf law has been sentenced to 24 months in prison, threemonths without parole, the judiciary said Wednesday.

Tehran’s chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, who announced thesentence, did not give the woman’s identity but said she intended to appealthe verdict, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency reported.

The woman “encouraged moral corruption” in public, he said, criticising thelight nature of the sentence and saying he would push for the full two-yearpenalty.

More than 30 Iranian women have been arrested since the end of December forpublically removing their veils in defiance of the law.

Most have been released, but many are being prosecuted.

Iranian law in place since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 stipulates thatall women, Iranian or foreign, Muslim or non-Muslim, must be fully veiledin public at all times.

But the zeal of the country’s morality police has declined in the past twodecades, and a growing number of Iranian women in Tehran and other largecities often wear loose veils that reveal their hair.

In some areas of the capital, women are regularly seen driving cars withveils draped over their shoulders.

Dolatabadi said he would no longer accept such behaviour, and had orderedthe impound of vehicles driven by socially rebellious women.

The prosecutor said some “tolerance” was possible when it came to women whowear the veil loosely, “but we must act with force against people whodeliberately question the rules on the Islamic veil”, according to MizanOnline. -APP/AFP