The Administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran has decided to set up clinics to provide women, who disobey the mandatory hijab law, with psychiatric treatment! Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department at Iran’s Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, recently confirmed the news, stressing that the clinics would offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”.

As expected, Human Rights organisations in Iran and other parts of the globe have strongly criticised the decision of the Iranian Government. According to Human Rights activists, it is unfortunate that the orthodox religious regime in the West Asian nation views the Anti-Hijab Movement as a psychiatric problem! They are of the opinion that the concerned authorities in Tehran are making a serious attempt to intimidate women in the pretext of medical treatment. Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist, has called the proposal “chilling”.

Hossein Raeesi, the noted Iranian Human Rights lawyer, has argued that wearing a hijab is not rooted in Islamic or Iranian law, noting that the agency overseeing the proposed clinics would report directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei! It is mandatory for girls and women to cover their head with a hijab in public in the Islamic Republic. Also, Iranian women have to wear loose clothing outside their residence! There are strict punishments for breaking the rules.

It may be noted that the Iranian Police recently arrested Ahoo Daryaei, a 30-year-old doctoral student in French Literature at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University, for walking openly in her undergarments inside the university campus in protest against the strict Islamic dress code. Reports suggest that members of an Iranian volunteer paramilitary group ripped the headscarf and clothes of Darvaei before her detention! Later, the spokesperson of the university claimed that the student was suffering from mental health issues!

In September 2022, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini due to Police brutality had triggered a nationwide Anti-Hijab Protest. Amini perished in a hospital in Tehran under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious Morality Police, arrested the young girl for allegedly not wearing a hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic claimed that she had a heart attack at a Police station, collapsed and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, told the media that she was severely beaten and died as a result of Police brutality.

Iran has started a crackdown on hijab law breaches in recent times, with reports of arrests and disappearances of girls appearing in newspapers. The Centre for Human Rights in Iran has claimed that 25-year-old Roshanak Molaei Alishah was detained after confronting a man harassing her over her attire in November 2024.

However, Alishah’s current whereabouts are unknown!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das