Iran to roll out harsher punishment for people encouraging veil removal
People encouraging women in Iran to remove the hijab will be prosecuted in criminal courts with no right of appeal against any conviction, the country’s deputy attorney general is reported to have said.
“The crime of promoting unveiling will be dealt with in the criminal court, whose decisions are final and unappealable,” local news quoted Iran’s deputy attorney general Ali Jamadi as saying.
“The punishment for the crime of promoting and encouraging others to remove the hijab is much heavier than the crime of removing the hijab itself,” Mr Jamadi added.
He said the act of encouraging a person to remove the hijab was a “clear example of encouraging corruption”, but did not elaborate on what exactly the punishment might be or what constitutes “promoting unveiling”.
A growing cohort of women across Iran are ditching the hijab following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police last year.
A number of women have filmed themselves not wearing a veil and shared these videos on social media.
In November last year, Iranian officials arrested two prominent actors, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, for removing their headscarves and publicly supporting protests against the government.
Iranian sportswomen have also been appearing in competitions without wearing a veil since the anti-government protests began in Iran.
Numerous reports have emerged of the way in which Iranian police have treated women protesting against the requirement to wear the hijab. The disturbing accounts have sparked anger and a call for the government to repeal its laws on wearing the garment.
According to the controversial law, all women, and girls as young as seven, must wear the hijab.
The law has in effect placed the country’s approximately 40 million women under constant surveillance since its introduction after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Last week, authorities across Iran began installing cameras in public places to identify women defying the country’s compulsory dress code.
Local police said that those violating the law would receive “warning text messages as to the consequences”, in a move aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law”.
