Can't a Woman Go Cycling in Iran? Young Woman's Arrest Triggers Social Media Anger

Over the last two days, a video has gone viral; as it featured a young Iranian woman riding a bike through the street, while not wearing the headcover imposed on all women in the country by law. According to several media resources, the young woman was soon after arrested in Najafabad.

In the video, the young woman whose name has not been identified can be seen riding her bike in one the Najafabad's main squares and raising her right hand in the air every now and then, in a sign that she was enjoying her time.

However, the governor of the city Mojataba Raei had justified the woman's arrest saying that "the public was provoked by her act as she didn't wear the headscarf and passed by a mosque," the Guardian reported.

As soon as news of the woman's arrest made headlines, social media exploded in anger over the Iranian government's decades-long approach to women's rights, as Iranian women continue to be surveilled and limited by laws imposed on them since the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 when the hijab was first imposed by law.

Some social media commentators also saluted the young woman describing her as "brave" and noting that Iranian women are still persecuted for the very same actions taken for granted in other parts of the world, as simple as riding a bike in public or choosing to not cover their hair.