Iranian women who do not wear the veil could be punished with psychological treatment in clinics, in a new measure by the Iranian government to insist on the Islamic attire that many women have objected to since the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
Attendance at a "Hijab Failure Rehabilitation Clinic" could be imposed as an alternative to fines and by court order, Mohammad Reza Mirshamsi, deputy director of social affairs at the Center for Ordering Good and Prohibiting Evil, told the Didban media outlet today, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
According to the official, the judicial system requested alternatives to the punishments applied to women detained for not wearing the mandatory veil and the agency that oversees it proposed mandatory attendance at psychological clinics.
"By attending meetings at these clinics, women will become aware of the harm caused by removing the hijab and will abandon this illegitimate and illegal practice," Mirshamsi said.
The deputy director also said the move was in line with guidelines set by the country's president, Masud Pezeshkian, who argued during the election campaign that the issue of the veil was an educational one, not a police one.
Iranian authorities announced on Wednesday the creation of a clinic in Tehran to provide "scientific and psychological" support to women who feel pressured to stop wearing the Islamic veil, suggesting it is a voluntary measure.
The announcement of the new clinic came after a young woman was arrested earlier this month for stripping down to her underwear at a university in Tehran in what was seen as an act of protest after she allegedly encountered security problems because of her veil.
The Iranian government claimed that the young woman was suffering from "problems" and said that it did not consider the incident a security issue, but rather a social issue.
Many Iranian women have stopped wearing the veil as a gesture of civil disobedience since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, after she was detained by the so-called morality police for not wearing the Islamic headdress correctly.
The death of the young Iranian Kurdish woman sparked strong protests that were violently repressed by the authorities, with hundreds of arrests and dozens of deaths.
Since then, the Iranian authorities have tried to reimpose the use of the veil with punishments such as confiscating vehicles and returning to the streets the morality police, who arrest women with their heads uncovered.
Iran’s parliament passed a law in 2023 that was ratified in September by the Guardian Council, a body that aims to ensure that laws comply with Islamic law, and must now be signed into law by Iran’s current president, the reformist Masud Pezeshkian.
The law punishes women who violate the strict dress code with prison sentences of up to five years for repeat offences, fines of up to $2,000 (about €1,900), confiscation of cars and a ban on driving, as well as deductions from wages or employment benefits or a travel ban. Despite this, many Iranian women continue to abstain from wearing the veil, in a gesture of defiance against the Islamic Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment