These photos allegedly showing an Iranian government minister cuddling up to his hijab-free girlfriend in public have caused outrage after emerging online.
The pictures, which appear to show Iranian government minister Rostam Qasemi cuddling up to his unnamed girlfriend, who can be seen not wearing a hijab, have caused a backlash after being published on social media and picked up by independent Iranian media.
They are believed to have been taken near the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 2011, two years after the death of his wife, but have only surfaced online now.
The images of him cuddling a woman without a hijab, alleged to be his non-married girlfriend, during a time when he was the Minister of Petroleum, are in conflict with the current laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to independent Iranian media.
Iranian security forces have been cracking down on people protesting against the mandatory hijab rules enforced in the country and against other social injustices since the death of Mahsa Amini, who was fatally beaten by the country’s morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Social media users have reacted with fury at the images showing Qasemi, criticising the regime for preaching one thing in public and doing another in private.
And former footballer Ali Karimi reshared the images on his Instagram Stories with the caption: “Soldiers, don’t attack and kill your compatriots for people like this.”
Rostam Qasemi (also spelled Ghasemi ), 58, is the current Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development and former Minister of Petroleum.
He studied civil engineering at university before joining the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and reaching the rank of commander fighting in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Qasemi was put in charge of the Khatam al-Anbiya base and was the economic deputy of the IRGC’s Quds Force, before retiring from the military in 2011. The Quds Force is one of the five branches of the IRGC and it specialises in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations.
Iranian forces have been cracking down on waves of civil disorder following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September.
She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before succumbing in the ICU on 16th September.
The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.
Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.
Independent Iranian media have claimed that Mahsa’s medical records showing her history of heart disease were faked by the Iranian government.
Dissident Iranian activists have now reportedly said that over 400 people have died as a result of security forces cracking down on the protests gripping the country.
