Mandatory Hijab: Divine Commandment or State Law?
Skeptic contacted the office of Ayatollah Shirazi regarding whether mandatory hijab is a divine commandment or state law.
Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq Husseini Shirazi is a mujtahid, jurist, and external jurisprudence instructor at Qom Seminary. He is also among the Shiite sources of emulation in Qom and is counted among the sources of emulation who are critical of the Islamic Republic of Iran system. Sadiq Shirazi is from the Shirazi family, a lineage that has played an important role throughout the history of Shiite clergy and religious authority.
Hijab is an issue that has recently become a subject of debate and reaction by system authorities, resulting in the arrest of many people for non-compliance and imposing heavy penalties on them. System authorities, some of whom are also moral enforcers, have in some cases engaged in violent behavior toward individuals who appear in public without mandatory hijab in public spaces.
Many reactions to this conduct, particularly following the death of a woman due to a dispute over hijab, came from the public as well as from various religious authorities. In this regard, Skeptic contacted the office of Ayatollah Shirazi regarding hijab and received responses on the matter.
On Friday, April 28, this audio conversation was released on social media, in which an expert from Ayatollah Shirazi’s office discusses “hijab is a divine commandment but not mandatory in enforcement.” In this audio file, the questioner asks the expert whether mandatory hijab in Iran is a divine commandment or a government law.
The expert responds to this question: “This matter is a Quranic commandment from the Lord, but it is not mandatory in enforcement. Rather, it should be expressed through words and good character.” He continues in response to further questions that hijab is obligatory but not mandatory in enforcement. It is like prayer, which is obligatory, but people are not beaten for not praying.”
The questioner believes that if hijab is obligatory but not mandatory in enforcement, then the state law regarding hijab is nothing more than an invention, which is why people are treated with violence and disrespect over it.
The complete audio file of this conversation can be heard below.
Responses to this question from various experts and sources of emulation come at a time when Mahsa Amini was killed not due to not wearing hijab, but according to system authorities for improper hijab wearing, an event that sparked a popular revolutionary uprising.
How important is the role of hijab in this revolutionary uprising? Can continuing to disregard mandatory hijab bring about change in the process of the system’s collapse? Because it has now become the most important issue for the system.
