The Iranian Parliament on Wednesday increased pressure on women who refuse to wear the veil in the Islamic Republic, by approving a bill that toughens penalties for those who refuse to wear this garment.
After months of discussions, the deputies approved by 152 votes in favor, 34 against and seven abstentions the implementation of the bill titled “Support for the culture of chastity and the veil.”
The “Law to Support the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” was ratified by a small judicial and cultural commission behind closed doors in mid-August and deputies voted this Wednesday in favor of its application.
The text was adopted four days after the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, on September 16, 2022 after being detained by the police for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
This death sparked a widespread protest movement in the country and relaunched the debate on one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic since the fall of the Shah in 1979.
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Protest against the Iranian regime in Place de la Bastille in Paris on the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran.
What punishments will there be for women who do not wear the veil?
The law seeks to end the lack of wearing the veil, a gesture of civil disobedience that many Iranians have adopted after Amini’s death.
To this end, it establishes punishments for women who appear without a headscarf in public, such as fines of up to $2,000, prison sentences of up to five years, the confiscation of cars and the ban on driving, in addition to deductions from wages, employment benefits or the prohibition of accessing banking services.
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The penalties do not only affect women who do not cover themselves, but also Women and girls who display “nudity” in public spaces or on social networks will be punished. of any part of the body or wear thin or tight clothing.”
It is considered “inappropriate” to wear clothing that is “tight” or that “exposes a part of the body,” the approved document reads.
![Women in Iran](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/04/08/64317e8ee37a5.jpeg)
Thus, it prohibits the use of torn pants, short sleeves or shorts, among others, and establishes the dismissal of workers who fail to comply with these rules.
“Vehicles in which the driver or passenger does not wear a hijab or wears inappropriate clothing may be fined 5 million rials” (about $10.7), the text further indicates.
“Any person who “commits the crime” of not wearing a veil or wearing inappropriate clothing in cooperation with foreign or hostile governments, media, groups or organizations (to the Islamic Republic) or in an organized manner, will be sentenced to a fourth degree prison sentence”, that is, between 5 and 10 years, the project states.
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Currently, appearing “in public without the Muslim veil” can be punished with a “prison sentence of ten days to two months.”
She will be sentenced to a fourth degree prison sentence
The deputies approved the bill “for a trial period of three years.”
To become law, the text must receive the green light from the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, a body composed of 12 members, six jurists and six clerics, which reviews the legislation adopted by Parliament and has the power to veto the decisions of the hemicycle.
![Islamic women](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2022/10/15/634b3ec9bc8f9.jpeg)
The death of a young woman in Iran for improperly wearing her veil sparked demonstrations in the country.
Majority in the government and parliament, the conservatives firmly defend the obligation to wear the veil and believe that its disappearance would launch a process that would profoundly modify “social norms.”
On September 14, the independent international mission created by the UN after the 2022 protests indicated that If the new law were adopted “it would expose women and young people to increasing risks of violence, harassment and arbitrary detention.”
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UN experts described the law as “a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to govern through systematic discrimination with the intention of subjugating women and girls.”
And today many Iranian women continue not to wear the veil despite a repression that resorts to car confiscations, the denial of public services, the closure of businesses, punishments such as cleaning corpses or the deployment in July of patrols that warn women to cover themselves.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
*With AFP and EFE
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