The hijab stays: How Iran is tightening laws for women

As protests against the mandatory hijab rules grip Iran, the country has continued to suppress the voices of its people. The Islamic Republic has not only intensified the crackdown against protestors but its judiciary has reportedly ordered to harden the hijab (Islamic headscarf) rules and “firmly punish” the violators. The country’s “hijab and chastity” law makes it compulsory for girls and women over the age of nine to wear a headscarf in public. What has Iran’s judiciary said about these mandatory hijab rules? Is the country using face recognition to identify women who do not comply with the law? Let’s take a closer look. ‘Firmly punish’ the violators Iran’s chief prosecutor has directed the police to take action against those who do not adhere to the hijab rules, as per reports. Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday (10 January) that Iran’s Attorney-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri had issued a directive where the “police were ordered to firmly punish any hijab violations”, as per AFP. Citing the news agency, Iran Wire quoted Deputy Prosecutor-General Abulsamad Khorramabadi as saying, “The crime of removing the hijab is one of the obvious crimes, and law enforcement officers are obliged to arrest the perpetrators of obvious crimes and introduce them to the judicial authorities for punishment”.

The judiciary has also called for imposing stricter punishments on the violators, including exile.

“Courts must sentence the violators, as well as fine them, to additional penalties such as exile, bans on practising certain professions and closing workplaces,” Mehr news agency quoted the judiciary as saying, as per AFP. This sudden directive holds significance as in early December the attorney general had said that the mandatory hijab law is being reviewed by the parliament and judiciary. “Both parliament and the judiciary are working” to assess if the law requires any amendments “and will see the results in a week or two,” Montazeri had said, as per AFP. However, on 25 December 2022, Montazeri asked women to follow the country’s mandatory hijab law “for their own safety and health” and called the act of not wearing the piece of cloth in public an “obvious crime”, as per Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report. Iran protests Iran saw widespread protests over this mandatory law following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, who was detained in September for allegedly wearing tight trousers and a loose headscarf by the morality police in Tehran. Later, she fell into a coma and died in police custody. Since then, more women have been taking to the streets without hijabs to express dissent. Iranian women took centre stage during these demonstrations and even many celebrities have been seen without a headscarf in solidarity with the anti-hijab movement. [caption id=“attachment_11966632” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] More and more women in Iran are venturing out without hijab in public. AP[/caption] Iran has announced dozens of death sentences, while at least four people have been hanged since the protests erupted, Reuters reported. So far, around 500 people have been killed by security forces and over 18,000 arrested over the protests, Iran Wire reported citing activists. ALSO READ: Did Iran sentence 15,000 anti-hijab protesters to death? The truth revealed Iran increases surveillance Despite global condemnation and public anger, Iran has refused to budge from its strict dress code for women. AFP reported earlier in January citing the Fars news agency that women were again being sent warnings by the Iranian police to observe the mandatory headscarves rule even in cars. A senior police officer told Fars that the “new stage” of the Nazer-1 program, meaning “surveillance” in Persian, was being kickstarted “across the country by the police.” Meanwhile, reports have emerged of cafes and restaurants being closed for serving women without the hijab. As per Wired, after a picture of a woman without hijab working at Sarzamineh Shadi (Land of Happiness) spread on social media, the indoor amusement park in the east of Tehran was shut. Two weeks before Amini’s death spurred protests in Iran, the government had announced its plans to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women who do not comply with the hijab law. [caption id=“attachment_11966642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Iran police is asking women to wear hijab even in cars, say reports. AFP File Photo[/caption] The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, said in September last year that the technology would be used “to identify inappropriate and unusual movements,” including “failure to observe hijab laws”, the Wired report said. Now, many believe the technology is already in use to trace the violators. Cathryn Grothe, a research analyst at Freedom House, a US government-backed nonprofit, told Wired that she has received reports of people being somehow recognised and targeted by authorities in Iran. “Iran’s government has monitored social media to identify opponents of the regime for years,” Grothe said, adding that if claims of the government using facial recognition are true then this is the “first instance she knows of a government using the technology to enforce gender-related dress law”. Mahsa Alimardani, who researches freedom of expression in Iran at the University of Oxford, also said she is aware of reports that women in Iran received mail for violating hijab law, even though they had not come in contact with a law enforcement officer, Wired reported. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.