Iranian women reportedly arrested for riding bicycles in public

Iranian authorities are reportedly enforcing a rule which prohibits women from publicly riding their bicycles, reports the International Business Times.

According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI, some women were arrested on July 26 for violating the recent directive.

Signs reportedly went up in May, with one example translated by NCRI as saying, "Bicycle riding for women is prohibited in this place. Women are set to ride at the women's park."

It was signed by the "Headquarters of prohibiting vice and promoting virtue" which the organization says is "one of the 26 Iranian agencies tasked with cracking down on women."

Some of the cyclists are believed to have been taken into custody after they resisted officers' orders to pledge in writing that they would not engage in the banned activity again.

It is unknown if these women continue to be held, but an NCRI member has since issued a statement condemning "such gender discrimination."