The Iranian police returned this Saturday (15) to women who do not cover themselves with the obligatory Islamic headscarf, with the help of cameras to identify them, in a new step towards reimposing the use of this garment in the country. Many Iranian women have stopped wearing the Islamic headscarf as a form of protest and civil disobedience since the death in police custody last September of Mahsa Amini, after being arrested precisely for wearing the hijab inappropriately.
For months, the Islamic Republic has focused on quelling the protests sparked by Amini’s death and now, with the uprising under control, has turned to reimposing the headscarf, mandatory in the country since 1983. “The police plan to deal with misuse of the hijab in the streets, vehicles and shopping centers starts to be applied from today”, reported today the Fars news agency, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian police announced last Saturday that they would use cameras and smart tools to identify women who do not wear the hijab in public places and gave a deadline of one week to start applying the measure. Women identified without headscarves will receive a text message informing them of the violation. If they reoffend, they will be indicted and will have to appear in court.
The law punishes women who do not cover themselves with a veil with fines and up to two months in prison, but the authorities are also studying other options such as deprivation of banking services. Women caught without veils in their cars are at risk of having their vehicle seized. Authorities have also warned shops and restaurants not to cater to uncovered women and, in fact, have closed many establishments for this reason.
Iranian women defy the police
Despite the announcement of the plan, many women walked the streets of the capital without a hijab this Saturday, as well as in previous days. Young or old, women without veils went shopping or simply strolled along Valiasr Street, in the north of the capital, oblivious to the warnings of the authorities. “I don’t care, let them do what they want, I’ll go on my way without wearing a veil,” a Tehran resident told EFE.
Iranian justice also announced this Saturday that not only women without headscarves will be prosecuted, as those people who encourage women to remove the obligatory garment in public will be tried without the possibility of appeal. “The crime of encouraging the removal of the veil will be prosecuted in a criminal court, whose decision will be final and without the possibility of appeal,” explained the country’s deputy attorney general, Ali Jamadi, according to the Mehr agency.
The prosecutor stated that encouraging women to stop covering their heads with the veil is a “clear example of promoting corruption” and will be severely punished, although he did not detail the penalties. “The penalty for encouraging and persuading not to wear a headscarf is much greater than not wearing a hijab,” added Jamadi.
These measures are in addition to others dictated previously to reimpose the use of the headscarf, a symbol of the Islamic Republic founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In this sense, the Ministries of Education and Health announced at the beginning of the month that they will not allow students who do not wear the veil when attending universities and schools. In the metro of the capital, women began to be given verbal warnings to cover up if they wanted to use this public transport service.
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