The Islamic Republic of Iran continues its efforts, so far without much success, to reimpose the veil and enforce the rules of Islamic dress that it imposed since its creation in 1979. Parliament approved this Wednesday an “experimental law for a period of three years” that promotes “the defense of chastity and the hijab” and that intensifies 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 “offense” becomes repetitive, confiscation of passports, confiscation of property or imprisonment of up to 10 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 had warned that its approval could be a form of “gender apartheid.”
“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 modesty” sought to make it easier for 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 all those who promote different ways of dressing. This not only includes the veil, but also mid-calf pants, shirts that reveal the hips or T-shirts that leave the arm exposed, which are currently so fashionable among the youngest women.
The worst punishment will be for people with public influence who are found guilty of violating the hijab in cooperation with foreign governments or media. In this case the sentence may reach up to ten years.
The Iranian system’s attempt to keep women’s heads covered is not new. In the last four decades, Iranian authorities have implemented multiple measures to ensure compliance with dress standards. This includes paramilitaries in civilian clothes with the capacity to act in the name of “morality”. This morality police systematically detained women on the street, often violently, and then made them sign a document in which they agreed to dress according to the rules.
None of those attempts have been successful. Over the years it has become more common to see women, especially young women, with their veils fallen. No longer in the wealthy north of Tehran, but in the rest of the city. So much so that this bill approved this Wednesday was already in the works before the protests that shook Iran when Mahsa Jina Amini died in the custody of the morality police.
Local observers assure that its approval a year after the protests, when hundreds and hundreds of women continue to take to the streets without covering their heads and a good part 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 division between the population and a regime that tries to defend its Islamic essence by force,” explained a sociologist who, due to the sensitivity of the issue, asks that we identify her as Narges.
Narges highlights that the violence with which the regime repressed last year’s protests led many families who followed the system to completely distance themselves from the Islamic Republic and the way it uses violence and force to impose religion. An example is that the new law establishes that many institutions, including the army or the paramilitaries known as Basiji, will have to submit an annual report specifying what they have done to enforce 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 be able to reimpose the veil that fell from many heads after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini.
“I don’t see that women are fearful or want to go back to the past. The penalties for not wearing the veil have become harsher, but what I see is greater determination to achieve the goal they have in their heads,” concludes lawyer Shima Ghooshi.
