Image copyright Unknown Image caption In December, a woman who removed her veil in Tehran became the face of protests 
 
 An Iranian woman who publicly removed her veil to protest against a mandatory hijab law has been sentenced to two years in prison, prosecutors say. 
 
 The woman, who has not been officially named, was found guilty of "encouraging moral corruption", Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said. 
 
 He added that 21 months of the woman's sentence had been suspended and that she was in need of medical treatment. 
 
 It follows dozens of similar arrests of Iranian women in recent weeks. 
 
 Most of those detained for defying the country's strict law on appearing in public in a headscarf have been released without charge. 
 
 The woman sentenced in the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday was jailed for three months without parole. 
 
 She is "in need of long-term medical treatment and has to be seen by a psychiatrist", Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said. 
 
 He criticised the suspension of the majority of her sentence and argued that she should serve the full term of her penalty. 
 
 In December, an Iranian woman who was detained after defiantly taking off her headscarf and holding it on a stick in Tehran became the face of protests in the country. 
 
 Images of her standing on a telecoms box in a busy street in the city were widely shared on social media. The woman was later freed. 
 
 The photograph of the woman was first widely used in connection to the White Wednesday campaign in which women in Iran wear white to protest against the country's strict dress code. 
 
 Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, women have been forced to cover their hair according to Islamic law on modesty. ||||| A court in Iran sentenced a woman to two years in prison for removing her headscarf in public, the judiciary announced on Wednesday. She did so while taking part in protests against the country's compulsory requirement for women to cover their hair in public. 
 
 Since December, many women have begun removing their headscarves and waving them like flags from sticks on streets across the country. At least 30 women have been arrested and detained since the protests began. 
 
 'Encouraging moral corruption' 
 
 Tehran Public Prosecutor Abbas Jafar Dolatabadi said that infractions against the law would be dealt with "firmly." He cited the fact that the woman had "encouraged moral corruption" as the reason for the stiff sentence. 
 
 The woman reportedly showed no remorse for her actions, trying instead to convince the judge that the law was wrong. She plans to appeal to verdict. 
 
 Iranian women tend to wear their headscarves loosely despite the strictness of the Islamic Republic's laws 
 
 Tolerance has its limits 
 
 Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all women – Iranian, foreign, Muslim or non-Muslim – have been required to be entirely veiled in public. In recent years, many Iranian women have flouted the strictness of the law, preferring to wear their headscarves more loosely. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see Iranian women driving cars with their headscarves draped over their shoulders rather than on their heads. Dolatabadi said if police witnessed such cases they would impound the vehicle of the offending driver. 
 
 He added that although some "tolerance" could be shown toward women who wear their veils loosely, "we must act with force against people who deliberately question the rules on the Islamic veil." 
 
 js/aw (AFP, dpa) 
 
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 Prosecutor says woman took off obligatory hijab in Tehran street to ‘encourage corruption’ 
 
 An Iranian woman who publicly removed her veil in protest against Iran’s compulsory headscarf law has been sentenced to two years in prison, the judiciary said on Wednesday. 
 
 
 
 Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, who announced the sentence, did not give the woman’s identity but said she intended to appeal against the verdict, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency reported. 
 
 Dolatabadi said the unidentified woman took off her headscarf in Tehran’s Enghelab Street to “encourage corruption through the removal of the hijab in public”. 
 
 The woman will be eligible for parole after three months, but Dolatabadi criticised what he said was a “light” sentence and said he would push for the full two-year penalty. 
 
 More than 30 Iranian women have been arrested since the end of December for publically removing their veils in defiance of the law. 
 
 Most have been released, but many are being prosecuted. 
 
 Women showing their hair in public in Iran are usually sentenced to far shorter terms of two months or less, and fined $25. 
 
 Iranian law, in place since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, stipulates that all women, Iranian or foreign, Muslim or non-Muslim, must be fully veiled in public at all times. 
 
 
 
 But the zeal of the country’s morality police has declined in the past two decades, and a growing number of Iranian women in Tehran and other large cities often wear loose veils that reveal their hair. 
 
 In some areas of the capital, women are regularly seen driving cars with veils draped over their shoulders. 
 
 Dolatabadi said he would no longer accept such behaviour, and had ordered the impound of vehicles driven by socially rebellious women. 
 
 The prosecutor said some “tolerance” was possible when it came to women who wear the veil loosely, “but we must act with force against people who deliberately question the rules on the Islamic veil”, according to Mizan Online.
– A woman who disappeared in January after removing her hijab and using it as a flag in protest of Iranian law was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday, the BBC reports. The unnamed woman, previously described as a 31-year-old mother, whose protest spread across social media was found guilty of "encouraging moral corruption." The majority of the woman's sentence was suspended, and she will serve three months without parole. According to the Guardian, Tehran's chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, was unhappy with the "light" sentence given to the woman, who he says removed her hijab to "encourage corruption." Dolatabadi says the woman is "in need of long-term medical treatment and has to be seen by a psychiatrist." Sources say the woman wasn't sorry for removing her hijab in public and attempted to convince the judge that it was the law, not her, that was wrong, Deutsche Welle reports. Iranian law says all women must have their heads fully covered at all times while in public. While enforcement of the law has relaxed in recent years, Dolatabadi says they are cracking down. "We must act with force against people who deliberately question the rules on the Islamic veil," the Guardian quotes him as saying. More than 30 women have been arrested since the end of December for removing their hijabs in public. Dolatabadi says the woman sentenced Wednesday plans to appeal.