Some 2,000 women and men demonstrated in Isfahan, Iran, Oct. 22 in front of the local judiciary office to denounce acid attacks on women for supposed immodest dress. A smaller protest took place three days later in Tehran.

“We do not want to propagate virtues by acid,” chanted some of the protesters. In recent weeks vigilantes splashed acid in the faces of least eight women with the aim of permanent disfigurement. Some lost vision as a result.

Days before the protests, Iran’s parliament passed a bill that would sanction certain actions by ordinary citizens to enforce what they consider Islamic standards of propriety and decency.