Wearing the veil has been mandatory for all women in Iran since 1983Damon Lynch/Flickr
Published 04/26/2024 12:25
The United Nations (UN) expressed its concern this Friday, 26th, with reports of greater efforts by Iranian authorities to track and punish women who refuse to wear the veil in the country.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concerns about a bill to “support the family by promoting the culture of chastity and the hijab”, which would impose harsher penalties on women who appear in public without the hijab, a piece of clothing that covers the hair.
“What we have seen and heard is that in recent months, authorities, whether plainclothes or uniformed police officers, are increasingly enforcing the hijab law,” cabinet spokesman Jeremy Laurence said at a press conference in Geneva.
“There are reports of widespread arrests and harassment of women and girls, many of them between the ages of 15 and 17,” he added.
In mid-April, Iranian police announced a tightening of controls on the use of the hijab, alleging that the law was increasingly disregarded.
Hundreds of businesses, including restaurants and cafes, have been closed for failing to comply with the law, and surveillance cameras are being used to identify these women, Laurence said.
Many of them began to refuse to wear the veil after the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, aged 22, after being arrested by the Iranian morality police, which triggered a wave of protests, which were severely repressed by the regime.
While the text of a new hijab bill has not been released, “an earlier version stipulated that those found guilty of violating the mandatory dress code could face up to 10 years in prison, flogging and fines,” it said.
The UN also called for “all people imprisoned for exercising their freedom of opinion and expression, including artistic expression, should be released”.
