The Islamic Republic of Iran continues its push, so far without much success, to re-impose the veil and enforce the Islamic dress code it imposed since it was created in 1979. Parliament yesterday passed a law “experimental for a period of three years” that promotes “the defense of chastity and the hijab”. And that aggravates the penalties not only against women who do not follow the established rules, but also against those who do not enforce them.
Punishments include financial fines, which increase as the “fault” becomes repetitive, confiscation of passports, confiscation of property or imprisonment of up to ten years. Weeks ago, when this law was being studied in the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament, a committee of experts convened by the United Nations Human Rights office warned that passing the law could be a form of “apartheid of gender”.
“It can be a tool for systematic discrimination to repress women and girls by forcing them to obey the law”, said the report, which highlighted how the use of words such as “nudity”, “indecency” or “acts contrary to public shame” tried to make it easier for the institutions to deny them access to essential services.
The law, which has yet to be approved by the conservative Guardian Council, made up of 12 clerics and experts in Islamic law, also advocates gender division and punishes anyone who promotes different ways of dressing. This includes not only the veil, but also mid-leg pants, pieces that show the hip or shirts that leave the arm exposed, so fashionable among young women these days.
The worst punishment will be given to people with public influence who are found to be guilty of violating the hijab in cooperation with foreign governments or media. In this case the penalty can reach up to ten years.
The Iranian system’s attempt to keep women’s heads covered is not new. Over the past four decades, the Iranian authorities have put in place multiple measures to ensure that dress codes are met. This includes paramilitaries in civilian clothes with the ability to act in the name of “morality”. This morality police systematically arrested women in the street, often violently, and then made them sign a document in which they agreed to dress according to the rules.
None of these attempts have been successful. Over the years it has become more common to see women, especially young women, with their veils down. No longer in the wealthy north of Tehran, but in the rest of the city. So much so that this bill approved yesterday was already in the making since before the protests that shook Iran when Mahsa Jina Amini died in the custody of the morality police.
Local observers say that approving it a year after the protests, when hundreds and hundreds of women continue to go out in the streets without covering their heads and much of Iranian society seems to have learned to live with this reality, is a provocation . “The only thing that will come out of this is an even deeper separation between the population and a regime that tries to defend its Islamic essence by force”, explained a sociologist who, due to the controversy of the subject, asks to be identified as Narges.
Narges points out that the violence with which the regime repressed last year’s protests made many families who follow the system completely distance themselves from the Islamic Republic and the way they use violence and force to impose religion. One example is that the new law states that many institutions, including the army or the paramilitaries known as Bassij, will have to present an annual report specifying what they have done to impose the veil in society.
Many agree that the Iranian system, the Nizam, is going through the most radically conservative moment in recent decades. The paradox is that part of society seems to be going in the opposite direction. The question is whether, with this strategy that aims to frighten society, the authorities will manage to re-impose the veil that fell from many heads after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini.
“I don’t see women being fearful or wanting to go back to the past. The penalties for not wearing the veil have become more severe, but what I see is more determination to achieve the goal they have in mind”, concludes lawyer Shima Ghooshi.
