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As a human rights worker I am used to hearing shocking stories. However, a recent spate of gang-rapes and sexual assaults in Iran highlights increasing violence against women in a country where women’s rights are already under extreme pressure.

Most disturbing of all is the response of Iranian officials to a series of up to six separate, brutal attacks over the past few months.

One senior official even suggested that some of these crimes could have been avoided if the women targeted had adhered to Iran’s strict dress code, or hijab.

In one incident, in April 2011, a woman was gang-raped by at least 10 men in a field outside the village of Ghoojd in western Iran. The suspects were initially released. At one stage, the woman herself was reported to have been arrested.

Another incident occurred in May, when fourteen men allegedly raided a party in Khomeini Shahr, near Esfahan, locking the male party-goers in one room and raping the female guests.

Instead of speaking out forcefully against this crime, the Chief of the Police Detectives Bureau in Esfahan, Colonel Hossein Hosseinzadeh, appeared to condone it, saying :“If the women at the party had worn their hijab properly, they might not have been sexually assaulted”.