Police Commander Reiterates Warning Over Hijab: We Will Not Tolerate Norm-Breaking
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s police force says he will take action against those who refuse police officers’ reminders about dress codes.
According to Tasnim news agency, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hossein Ashtari stated at a spring headquarters meeting of the Isfahan province police command: “Police are not opposed to people’s joy, but we will not tolerate norm-breaking and will deal with norm-breakers decisively.”
These remarks from the police force’s commander-in-chief come as multiple images have been circulated in recent days by social media users and reports from civil rights monitoring organizations documenting “clashes between police and security forces with citizens participating in New Year celebrations in Kurdish-inhabited areas of Iran.”
Ashtari also warned while announcing the continuation of the practice of reminding individuals who remove their hijab that those who do not accept these “reminders” will face action. He stated: “If some people try to challenge the police, our officers will be forced to deal with them.”
This comes as opposition to “mandatory hijab” in Iran has intensified significantly in recent months, and severe punishments of protesters have not deterred these protests.
Since June 1980, observing “Islamic hijab” was initially made mandatory for Iranian women in government offices, and shortly afterward in 1983 under Article 102 of the Punishment Law, it became mandatory for all women. Later, in 1996 under Article 141 of the Islamic Penal Code, this was formally criminalized. Currently, according to the clause of Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code, it can result in up to two months imprisonment or 74 lashes. However, the protests of some mandatory hijab opponents have been met with punishments far more severe than those defined by law, with some being sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Warnings about dealing with non-compliance with mandatory dress codes are not new, and have even been raised in various formats during the current police commander’s tenure. Hossein Ashtari had also stated in November 2019: “Legal action is taken against individuals who remove their hijab in vehicles because we believe this improper act constitutes norm-breaking.”
The lack of religious dress in Iranian law is termed “hijab-lessness,” and open opposition to “mandatory hijab” in the rhetoric of Islamic Republic officials is referred to as “unveiling.” A phenomenon that has existed for four decades but has intensified and become more widespread in recent years.
The concern of many Islamic Republic officials about the spread of this phenomenon led a group of members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly to send a written reminder on March 24, 2022 to Ebrahim Raisi, the president, and other Iranian executive officials, emphasizing the “necessity of addressing the unfavorable situation of hijab and chastity.”
The intensity of this concern has become so widespread that it has even extended to the realm of the dead.
The CEO of Behesht Zahra Cemetery in Tehran announced on December 27, 2021, referring to this concern, the creation of a “gravestone supervision team” to “prevent the installation of gravestones that have unconventional and uncovered images.”
Source: Voice of America
