An Iranian official affiliated with the regime’s violent actions against women who refuse to wear hijabs is reportedly the co-director of a pro-migrant charity in the UK.
Saied Reza Ameli, who serves as Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, also serves as the director of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a charity which has permission from the UK government to assist migrants trying to get into the country, it is claimed.
Iran is currently experiencing mass protests against the forced wearing of hijabs in the country, which came about after a 22-year-old woman was killed at the hands of the country’s “morality police”, after being detained for being “inappropriately” dressed
According to a report by The Times, the death of the woman was preceded by the implementation of tougher guidelines by Saied Reza Ameli’s Cultural Revolution council, with the Iranian official himself saying that the new guidelines were needed to promote “social health, protection of the family”.
The publication also claims that Ameli has been active in regard to the wearing of the hijab in Britain, with the official demanding that all uniforms in Britain for school and work include an option that allows people to wear the veil.
Ameli has also seemingly promoted such pro-hijab values through his IHRC charity, which he reportedly founded in 1997, which describes itself as “researching about and campaigning against Islamophobia” in both Britain and Europe.
The charity is also reportedly approved by the UK government to provide legal advice to migrants, with the organisation’s legal arm being described as claiming that it has helped nearly 200 migrants with “irregular immigration status” gain permission to stay in the country.
Not all of the organisation’s actions have been approved by the British government, however, with the charity regulator launching an investigation into Ameli’s co-director, Massoud Shadjareh, in early 2020 after he seemingly praised Iranian general Qasem Soleimani as a “martyr” after he was killed by the United States.
As of June 2020, the London Metropolitan Police were also reportedly assessing whether any crime had been committed in regards to the incident.
In response to Ameli’s links to the ongoing violence in Iran, the IHRC has reportedly denied any direct link with any individual government, and has also seemingly tried to deflect blame for recent violence away from Ameli.
“There is no relationship between IHRC and any government,” a spokesman for the group told The Times, while also saying that Iran’s laws mandating women to wear the hijab had been in effect since 1980 “at which point Professor Ameli would not have even been at university never mind in a position to draw up or implement any policy.”
“Professor Ameli has been a director of IHRC from its outset,” the spokesman continued. “He is a renowned academic and we are honoured to have had his input into our research.”
According to a report by the Financial Times, at least 41 people have died since the protests against forced hijab-wearing began, with Iranian officials shifting the blame for the mass unrest onto the United States and Israel.
“This rioting was planned,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed last week. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”
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