Iran Shuts Down Insurance Company for Violating Mandatory Hijab Rules

The staff of the "Azki" private insurance company that was closed by the Iranian authorities due to the employees' non-compliance with the hijab. (social media)
The staff of the "Azki" private insurance company that was closed by the Iranian authorities due to the employees' non-compliance with the hijab. (social media)
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Iran Shuts Down Insurance Company for Violating Mandatory Hijab Rules

The staff of the "Azki" private insurance company that was closed by the Iranian authorities due to the employees' non-compliance with the hijab. (social media)
The staff of the "Azki" private insurance company that was closed by the Iranian authorities due to the employees' non-compliance with the hijab. (social media)

Iranian authorities have ordered the suspension of operations of an insurance company, Azki.com, due to female employees not abiding by the mandatory hijab, said Iranian state media.

Didehban news website reported that Azki.com was informed by the Central Insurance of Iran that its license was revoked, and its operations were suspended due to female employees being photographed without the hijab.

Didehban attributed this decision to a report published by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency demanding sanctioning of the company.

IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency cited an official from the Central Insurance of Iran as saying that the company’s case will soon be referred to the judicial body in order to issue a sentence against it.

Moreover, Iranian authorities have shut down an office of e-commerce company, Digikala, after it published images showing Digikala's female employees without their mandatory hijabs.

Last week, Iranian authorities banned a film festival that put out a publicity poster featuring an actress who was not wearing a hijab headscarf. A poster for the upcoming short film festival showed Iranian actress Susan Taslimi in a film in 1982.

The Iranian police announced earlier this month that its “morality police” are to resume their street patrols to enforce the dress code of women and men, especially wearing the hijab among females.

The death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained by Iran's morality police has sparked angry protests in Iran. More than 500 people have been killed and roughly 20,000 people had been arrested during the authority crackdown on the protests. Around 70 members of the Basij forces and the police were killed in clashes with the protesters.

Following the protests, women can be seen walking without a headscarf in Tehran and major cities without being subject to a warning by the police.



Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
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Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament's impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office, his lawyer said on Thursday.
"So if the decision is 'removal', it cannot but be accepted," Yoon Kab-keun, the lawyer for Yoon, told a news conference, when asked if Yoon would accept whatever the outcome of trial was.
Yoon has earlier defied the court's requests to submit legal briefs before the court began its hearing on Dec. 27, but his lawyers have said he was willing to appear in person to argue his case.
The suspended president has defied repeated summons in a separate criminal investigation into allegations he masterminded insurrection with his Dec. 3 martial law bid.
Yoon, the lawyer, said the president is currently at his official residence and appeared healthy, amid speculation over the suspended leader's whereabouts.
Presidential security guards resisted an initial effort to arrest Yoon last week though he faces another attempt after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the embattled leader.
Seok Dong-hyeon, another lawyer advising Yoon, said Yoon viewed the attempts to arrest him as politically motivated and aimed at humiliating him by bringing him out in public wearing handcuffs.