Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new draconian campaign against women and girls

Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April.

A new campaign, called Noor (“light” in Persian), was announced the same day the Iranian regime launched drone attacks against Israel, to crack down on “violations” of the country’s draconian hijab rules, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2020: For seven decades, India has been held together by its constitution, which promises equality to all. But Narendra Modi’s BJP is remaking the nation into one where some people count as more Indian than others. By Samanth Subramanian

Readers respond to a news report and an article by Nadeine Asbali on a prayer ban at Michaela community school in London

I was disappointed by the court ruling on Michaela community school’s prayer ban (High court upholds top London school’s ban on prayer rituals, 16 April), and shocked to see the jubilant reaction from several prominent politicians. Children praying in school is not disruptive or threatening, and for Kemi Badenoch to suggest that these pupils are attempting to “impose their views on an entire school community” screams of xenophobia. With this ruling, it’s the other way around. The prayer ban tells Muslim children that their religious and cultural practices are foreign and undesirable, and in doing so forces conformity to a homogeneous British identity.

I attended a Catholic school in Glasgow with a large number of Muslim students. Many wore hijabs and observed Ramadan, and every Friday a lot of my friends would go to a nearby mosque for midday prayers. In a school system where religious education was taught out of a textbook by old white men, having the opportunity to learn about other cultures through discussions with my peers and exposure to their lifestyles and practices was an enriching experience. Surely this environment of diversity, acceptance and understanding is one that our educators and politicians wish to cultivate?
Oliver Eastwood
Glasgow

Policing at a pro-Palestine march | Solving the climate crisis | Greatness in baldness | Paint colours | The best guitarists

It is appalling that a police officer used the phrase “openly Jewish” when trying to move Gideon Falter away from a pro-Palestine march (Met apologises for calling antisemitism campaigner ‘openly Jewish’, 19 April). But it’s also ludicrous to suggest that being Jewish would be provocative. There have always been lots of “openly Jewish” people at the marches calling for a ceasefire, carrying signs such as “Jews say ceasefire now”, “Jews against Israeli militarism”, “Jews for justice for Palestinians” and “Not in our name”. The drive to portray these marches as somehow anti‑Jewish is truly regrettable.
Dr Bob Banks
Grindleford, Derbyshire

• Had this been a pro-Israel campaign, I wonder whether the police would have felt inclined to prevent an “openly Muslim” man or woman wearing a hijab from crossing the road.
Coral Ash
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

Statement says it made clear to Michaela community school that ‘in winter it would not be possible to pray later’

One of the UK’s most prominent mosques has denied providing advice to the Michaela community school that all afternoon prayers could be deferred, disputing claims heard in court.

Katharine Birbalsingh, who runs the non-faith state school in Wembley and is often called “Britain’s strictest headteacher”, defeated a high court challenge this week to her policy of stopping pupils praying at lunchtime.

We would like to hear from Muslims in the UK about theirs or their children’s experiences of prayer at school

A Muslim pupil has lost their high court appeal against Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, over its ban on prayer rituals. The pupil had claimed the ban was discriminatory and breached her right to religious freedom.

We would like to hear from Muslims in the UK about their experiences of prayer when they were at school. We’re particularly interested in hearing from Muslims aged 18 or over who were able to pray at school in the UK and parents who are comfortable with sharing their children’s experiences.

The authorities declared the senseless act of violence in Wakeley a terrorist act within 18 hours – why the rush?

As I reflect on the tragic events involving the stabbing of the Assyrian Orthodox bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel while presenting a sermon in his church in south-western Sydney, I am filled with a profound sense of sorrow and concern for the state of our society.

This senseless act of violence, labelled as an act of terrorism by authorities, raises questions about radicalisation and the vulnerability of young people within our communities.

Kids pausing their football so a friend can pray; theology chats over lunch – I’ve seen the richness that religious diversity brings to school life

A Muslim student at Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, has lost a high court challenge to the school’s ban on prayer rituals. As a Muslim secondary schoolteacher, I have to say I am disappointed – but not surprised.

The appeal was lost on the grounds that the school declares itself secular. This is something the headteacher, Katharine Birbalsingh, insists all students and parents know when applying. In the written judgment dismissing the student’s case, Mr Justice Linden went as far as to say that: “The claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion.”

Nadeine Asbali is a secondary school teacher in London and the author of Veiled Threat: On Being Visibly Muslim in Britain

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Muslim pupil loses case against Michaela community school, run by former government social mobility tsar Katharine Birbalsingh

A ban on prayer rituals at one of the highest-performing state schools in England, famous for its strict discipline and high-profile headteacher, has been upheld by a high court judge.

The case against Michaela community school in Brent, north-west London, was brought by a Muslim pupil, known only as TTT in court proceedings, who claimed the ban was discriminatory and breached her right to religious freedom.

Featuring stars including Riz Ahmed and Nabhaan Rizwan, the event aims to celebrate the ‘rich tapestry of Muslim experiences via the medium of film’

The UK’s first major film festival dedicated to Muslim cinema announced its inaugural lineup on Tuesday, with a slew of award-winning films featuring the likes of Riz Ahmed and Informer’s Nabhaan Rizwan.

Ahmed, winner of an Oscar for best live action short film, will appear in Dammi, a short film directed by Yann Demange, the French film-maker best known for Top Boy and Northern Ireland-set drama ’71. Ahmed co-stars with Isabelle Adjani in a story about a man confronting his French and Algerian heritage on a trip to Paris. Rizwan plays the lead in In Camera, a British feature directed by Naqqash Khalid that screened at the London film festival, as an actor struggling to make a career in the film industry in the face of repeated rejections.

A region known as ‘God’s land’ offers a glimpse of the future if Indian prime minister’s BJP party retains its power

For centuries it has been known as the “land of the gods”. Stretching high up into the Himalayas, the Indian state of Uttarakhand is home to tens of thousands of Hindu temples and some of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage sites.

Yet as Hindu nationalism has become the dominant political force in India under prime minister Narendra Modi over the past decade, the government is accused of weaponising Uttarakhand’s sacred status for politics, making the state a “laboratory” for some of the most extreme rightwing policies and rhetoric targeting the Muslim minority.

This failed policy was sold as a defence of French secularism. Instead it has opened the floodgates of intolerance and become a tool for exclusion

In the early 2000s, I decided to commit to feminism, so I joined a feminist campaigning group, convinced I had found an organisation that would defend the rights of every woman equally. At the time, a national debate was raging: in the name of laïcité – or secularism – France was questioning Muslim schoolgirls’ right to wear head coverings in secular state schools. In March 2004, after months of debate, the French parliament voted through a ban on headscarves in schools, outlawing “symbols or clothing that conspicuously demonstrate a pupil’s religious affiliation”.

That is when I realised that the decision was quite popular in feminist circles, including the predominantly white group I was part of. Many white feminists thought it was their mission to help emancipate Muslim women and girls from a particular type of patriarchy tied to Islam. I quit the group. If Muslim women were enduring a specific form of patriarchal oppression, and really had no agency or free will when it came to wearing the hijab – a view I don’t share – how would it help them to exclude them from schools and access to emancipatory knowledge?

While some were freed or escaped, the authorities’ waning interest and ongoing mass abductions by militants has left campaigners and families of missing pupils in despair

When her Boko Haram captors told Margret Yama she would be going home, she thought it was a trick. She and the other girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, in north-east Nigeria’s Borno state, had been held for three years and had been taunted before about the possibility of release.

Conditions where they were being held in Sambisa Forest were harsh. Food and water were limited, the work was hard and the surveillance from the Islamist militants was suffocating. But then came the day in May 2017 when the girls were escorted to a Red Cross convoy on the edges of the forest.

Muslims mark the start of the three-day festival that signals the end of the holy month of Ramadan

One Briton says celebration is ‘reminder of how blessed we are’ as thoughts turn to those facing famine in besieged strip

Millions of Muslims across the UK celebrated Eid on Wednesday after the first sighting of the new crescent moon, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The Baitul Futuh mosque in London, one of the largest in Europe, welcomed more than 5,000 people to pray and celebrate the three-day festival, one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar.

Footage from around the world has captured celebrations of Eid al-Fitr as Muslims marked the end of the fasting month of Ramadan with the three-day festival. For many, however, the six-month war in Gaza has cast a shadow on the Islamic holiday

Class-action settlement covers people required to take off religious attire by NYPD after Muslim women said their rights were violated

New York City agreed to pay $17.5m to settle a lawsuit by two Muslim women who said the police violated their rights after arresting them, by forcing them to remove their hijabs before being photographed.

The preliminary class action settlement covers men and women required to remove religious attire before being photographed. It was filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court, and requires approval by the US district judge Analisa Torres.

Bechan Baba has dedicated his life to Varanasi’s Anarwali mosque, where Hindus and Muslims come to pray – despite the historical disputes raging outside

In the heart of Varanasi, where the sacred Ganges meanders by and incense smoke mingles with the faint echoes of prayers from a myriad of temples, Bechan Baba sits at the entrance of the Anarwali mosque. A silent sentinel, the 72-year-old Hindu caretaker leans back on weathered stones that were laid almost 400 years ago.

Bechan has dedicated his working life to the service of this ancient mosque, which represents a sense of unity in a city wrestling with historical disputes.

Religious leaders reject division and celebrate diversity at city’s first interfaith iftar

As politicians continue to argue and the war in Gaza rages on, leaders from the Muslim and Jewish communities in Bradford held an interfaith iftar on Wednesday evening, to celebrate the diversity of this part of West Yorkshire.

Laurence Saffer, the president of the Leeds Jewish representative council, described the similarities between practising Islam and Judaism and said it was important to attend the iftar – the evening meal held by Muslims observing Ramadan – because “it’s what we do”.

Joram van Klaveren played a key role in Geert Wilders’ Freedom party but is now actively working to counteract its message

He was once Geert Wilders’ right-hand man, crafting Freedom party (PVV) messaging that described Islam as a “lie” and pushed for the Qur’an and mosques to be banned in the Netherlands.

One decade on, Joram van Klaveren is a Muslim convert – the second politician from the far-right PVV to convert – and actively working to dismantle the myths he once peddled.