Kicked, dragged, even tasered: How Iran is intensifying its hijab crackdown

For the past week or so, Iran has been in the news for its rising tensions with Israel. On 13 April, Tehran did the unthinkable by launching a direct attack on Israeli soil, firing an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles. On the very same day, Tehran also initiated a new campaign within the country, ordering its police to arrest women who choose to refuse to wear the mandatory hijab.

A search of ‘Iran hijab’ on social media platforms will reveal several accounts of women recounting how they have been dragged or detained by security officials, prompting human rights activists to outrage and condemn the country’s authorities, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei .

Here’s what is unfolding in the country.

The hijab crackdown

Earlier, last week, Iranian officials launched a new campaign, dubbed Noor (meaning light in Persian), to crack down on those violating the hijab rules in the country, which dictate that all women must cover their heads in public.

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And since then, several women have taken to social media to share their harrowing tales of being harassed by Iran’s morality police — the Gasht-e-Ershad .

One such instance is when a mother and daughter walking through a busy street in Tehran were accosted by agents, who hurled insults at them. When they resisted arrest, they were violently dragged into a van, reported The Guardian.

Another woman, Dina Ghalibaf, as per The Guardian, was taken into the police room of Sadeghiyeh metro station. When she asserted that she was a taxpayer and had the right to use the metro, she was tasered. She further accused one of the officers of sexually assaulting her.

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There are several such videos on X where people complain of the brutality that the agents of Gasht-e-Irshad or the police are using against women, who are violating the hijab law.

The hijab and burqa are 'free choice' but this happens in Iran if you don't wear hijab properly. pic.twitter.com/aEblJ44pE2

— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) April 17, 2024

Another video shows police officials dragging a woman into a van for failing to wear the hijab.

Brutal Crackdown Signals Renewal of War Against Women in Iran.
Look at how the Hijab Police savagely arrest an unarmed woman simply because she hasn’t covered her hair, dragging her into a police van. This order came after the leader of the Islamic Republic, @khamenei_ir,… pic.twitter.com/eU2ZKxBXLG

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 17, 2024

One woman recounting the abuse she encountered told _The Guardia_n: “Around eight agents surrounded me on Saturday and started screaming at me. They hurl insults like ‘whore’, ‘naked America-loving s**t’ – all while kicking me in the legs, stomach and everywhere. They don’t care where they hit you.”

Another video shared online shows a young woman, her hair uncovered, having a seizure on the ground outside the metro in the Tajrish neighbourhood of Tehran, after telling onlookers that the police confiscated her phone.

After the new wave of crackdowns over hijab in Iran, several women have been brutally arrested and beaten. Here a young woman reportedly had a nervous breakdown or panic attack after a heated confrontation with the morality police. Video sent by Kosar Eftekhari pic.twitter.com/xKhcXI2TGc

— Deepa Parent (@DeepaParent) April 17, 2024

Another instance of the crackdown is when a group of protesters are seen chanting ‘let her go’ in a subway station in Tehran. This because a woman was detained for not wearing the hijab.

The misogynistic morality police in Iran got punished by people today.

They attempted to harass, beat and arrest women Tehran’a metro for not observing hijab.

Instead, they got outnumbered by ordinary people protecting women. Long live people power.

pic.twitter.com/V4RowkDzdZ

— Vahid 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 (@vahid_y1) April 23, 2024

Ayatollah’s diktat

According to many activists and women in Iran, the crackdown on violators of the hijab law, comes after the recent statements made by the country’s Supreme Leader.

Ehsan Soltani, a political analyst, told Voice of America, “Two weeks ago, Khamenei officially declared that ‘hijab is a religious obligation; whether you accept it or not, you must adhere to it.’ For three decades, he either remained elusive or claimed, ‘I am not an expert,’ whenever a decision was made. However, this time, he personally stepped forward and issued the command for internal war’.”

Soltani and others note that it is Khamenei’s recent statements that are behind the excessive actions of the government authorities.

According to a Washington Post report, some Iranians suspect that this is just the latest in a long-running campaign to stamp out dissent in all forms.

Iran’s hijab law

The hijab has become a controversial piece of clothing in Iran and garnered a lot of news in 2022 when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, died in the custody of Iran’s “morality police” for failing to wear the clothing correctly. Her death galvanised mass protests, and several women even took to cutting their hair in public as an act of resistance.

The mass agitations and demonstrations led to Iranian lawmakers to formulate an even more stringent law on modesty.

In September last year, the Iranian parliament passed a new “hijab and chastity” bill, under which those dressed “inappropriately” could face up to 10 years in jail. It also mandates fines for those “promoting nudity” or “making fun of the hijab” in the media and on social networks, and for owners of vehicles in which a female driver or passenger is not wearing the hijab or appropriate clothing.

As per the law, “inappropriately dressed” for women entails “revealing or tight clothing, or clothing that shows parts of the body lower than the neck or above the ankles or above the forearms”.

A group of United Nations experts had even called the legislation a “form of gender apartheid ”. “The draft law imposes severe punishments on women and girls for noncompliance which may lead to its violent enforcement,” the experts said.

“The bill also violates fundamental rights, including the right to take part in cultural life, the prohibition of gender discrimination, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to peaceful protest, and the right to access social, educational, and health services, and freedom of movement.”

With inputs from agencies