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)
TT

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Didehban news website reported that Azki.com was informed by the Central Insurance of Iran that its license was revoked, and its operations were suspended due to female employees being photographed without the hijab.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



Mexico President Chides Trump: Mexican America ‘Sounds Nice’

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
TT

Mexico President Chides Trump: Mexican America ‘Sounds Nice’

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shows a 1661 world map showing the Americas and the Gulf of Mexico in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments about renaming the body of water, during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, in this photo distributed on January 8, 2025. (Presidencia de Mexico/Handout via Reuters)

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday suggested North America including the United States could be renamed "Mexican America" - an historic name used on an early map of the region - in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

"Mexican America, that sounds nice," Sheinbaum joked, pointing at the map from 1607 showing an early portrayal of North America.

The president, who has jousted with Trump in recent weeks, used her daily press conference to give a history lesson, flanked by old maps and former culture minister Jose Alfonso Suarez del Real.

"The fact is that Mexican America is recognized since the 17th century... as the name for the whole northern part of the (American) continent," Suarez del Real said, demonstrating the area on the map.

On the Gulf of Mexico, Suarez del Real said the name was internationally recognized and used as a maritime navigational reference going back hundreds of years.

Trump floated the renaming of the body of water which stretches from Florida to Mexico's Cancun in a Tuesday press conference in which he presented a broad expansionist agenda including the possibility of taking control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Sheinbaum also said it was not true that Mexico was "run by the cartels" as Trump said. "In Mexico, the people are in charge," she said, adding "we are addressing the security problem."

Despite the back and forth, Sheinbaum reiterated that she expected the two countries to have a positive relationship.

"I think there will be a good relationship," she said. "President Trump has his way of communicating."