Iran introduced plans to ascertain a ‘therapy facility’ for girls who don’t adjust to the nation’s obligatory hijab rules, drawing fast condemnation from human rights teams and Iranian girls.
The top of the Girls and Household Division Mehri Talebi Darestani of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice, said the clinic will supply “scientific and psychological therapy for hijab elimination.” The announcement has sparked concern and anger, with many viewing it as an escalation of the federal government’s crackdown on girls’s rights.
“It gained’t be a clinic, it is going to be a jail. We’re struggling to make ends meet and have energy outages, however a bit of fabric is what this state is frightened about. If there was a time for all of us to come back again to the streets, it’s now or they’ll lock us all up,” mentioned one Iranian lady, as quoted by the Guardian.
The announcement adopted experiences of a college pupil, arrested for eradicating her clothes on campus after allegedly dealing with harassment by safety guards for hijab violations, being transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
Human rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide, have raised considerations about using pressured remedy and torture towards protesters and dissidents deemed mentally unstable by Iranian authorities. “The thought of creating clinics to ‘treatment’ unveiled girls is chilling, the place individuals are separated from society merely for not conforming to the ruling ideology,” mentioned Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist and goal of an assassination try final 12 months.
Human rights lawyer Hossein Raisi criticiced the clinic concept as “neither Islamic [nor] aligned with Iranian legislation.” He additionally expressed alarm that the announcement originated from a division beneath the direct authority of Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei.
This incident follows experiences of elevated arrests, disappearances, and enterprise closures linked to alleged hijab legislation violations. Rights organisations, together with Amnesty Worldwide, reported proof of mistreatment and compelled remedy of protesters in state psychiatric amenities. Additionally they famous elevated enforcement of costume codes, together with arrests, disappearances, and enterprise closures associated to hijab violations.
Lately, the Middle for Human Rights in Iran reported the arrest of Roshanak Molaei Alishah, aged 25, following a confrontation with a person who had harassed her about her hijab. Her location stays unknown.
The hijab in Iran has been a deeply symbolic and contentious subject, tied to each spiritual identification and political management. Strict hijab enforcement has continued beneath successive leaderships, together with the deceased President Ebrahim Raisi. His successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, vowed to cease the morality police’s harassment of girls over hijab violations, though Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei nonetheless holds the last word authority and maintains that unveiling is strictly forbidden. Regardless of a slight leisure of enforcement, the Iranian authorities actively screens hijab compliance, utilizing surveillance applied sciences and focusing on companies and occasions the place girls seem with out hijabs.
These mandates and restrictions have fueled public frustration over time, however tensions reached a tipping level with the demise of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Her demise, after being detained for allegedly violating hijab legal guidelines, ignited months of widespread protests with extreme penalties for 1000’s who opposed the strict insurance policies beneath Khamenei’s regime.
