The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran who boasts of challenging the world is cudgelling his brains over a group of women riding bicycles in Mariwan city recently. Defying the ban, women launched a bicycle activity called "Green Tuesday".
The Islamic Republic of Iran prohibited women to cycle at the beach of Mariwan’s Lake Zerîwar. In response to that ban, women are going out every Tuesday to cycle around the lake with the motto "Green Tuesday".
Women do not recognize the ban although they face lawsuits, and they receive remarkable support from various circles of society. In the face of the growing solidarity, the Iranian regime introduced a park, in which only women are allowed to ride their bikes. Yet, women and human rights defenders did not accept this service which they define as gender discrimination.
On July 20 regime forces confiscated the bicycles of the women and forced them to sign official documents reading that they will never ride again. Students from Women's High School Ferzanîgan expressed their reaction with a mass bicycle event, which saw huge participation.
In Iran it is forbidden for women to ride a bicycle, but the ban does not apply to capital Tehran and in Sinê. The mullah of Mariwan’s Great Mosque Mistefa Sherzadî announced some months ago during one of his sermons that women should not ride a bike and following that sermon policemen started to obstruct the women from cycling.
