FIGHTS broke out at Iran's top university yesterday after religious police tried to force women to wear hijabs.

Officers entered Tehran University to warn female students that they must obey hijab laws and wear headscarves in public, it's claimed.

4 Students with 'opposing views' are seen protesting outside Tehran University Credit: @azijangravi/ Twitter

4 Students claimed religious police entered the campus to warn women about hijabs Credit: Twitter

Majid Sarsangi, vice president of the university, denied any police or security forces had entered the campus - but added that "two groups of students with opposing views" clashed.

According to Fars news agency, scuffles broke out between the protesters and other students who supported compulsory hijabs.

Ali Tolouie, head of Tehran University Student Basij Organisation, told the agency: "They 'were shouting slogans against attire laws and observance of hijab."

There were no reports of casualties or arrests.

The headscarf, or hijab, is mandatory in public for all women in Iran.

They 'were shouting slogans against attire laws and observance of hijab Ali Tolouie

Those who violate the rule are usually sentenced to two months in prison or less and fined around $25 (£19).

A prominent human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was sentenced in May to seven years in prison after defending anti-hijab protesters.

Iranian authorities have adopted a tougher approach toward such protests since 2017, after dozens of women publicly took off their headscarves. Authorities blamed those protests on foreign-based opposition groups.

The hijab has been matter of dispute since the 1980s, when it became compulsory under the law, though Iranian women were still allowed to drive and hold public office.



'SCUFFLES'

In Tehran today, some young women wear tighter clothes with a scarf loosely covering their head, technically meeting the requirements of the law while drawing the ire of conservatives.

Both President Hassan Rouhani and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, support a softer attitude toward women who don't properly follow the dress code, although hard-liners who are opposed to any such easing still dominate Iran's security forces and the judiciary.

In April, a woman who removed her hijab in a public protest, Vida Movahed, was sentenced to one year in prison but pardoned by Khamenei, her lawyer said.

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Yesterday's rally came as men in Iran were ordered not to look at women during Ramadan.

The country's judiciary also announced that anyone eating in public or playing music on their car radio throughout Ramadan would be arrested.

The crackdown comes as US sanctions on the country's oil exports and energy sector plunge the country into an economic crisis.

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