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| Sina Yousefi, Human Rights Lawyer |
The Guardian Council in Iran recently passed the "Hijab and Chastity" law, which strengthens the state’s control over women's clothing. According to a report from the ISNA agency, the speaker of the Iranian parliament is expected to announce the new law soon.
In an interview with Voice of America, lawyer Sina Yousefi commented on the new law, stating that it legalizes the violence already being perpetrated against women in Iran.
According to Yousefi, "Since the draft was approved by the Guardian Council, we can now refer to it as the Hijab and Chastity law. After being approved by the council, it will be sent to the president to be announced to relevant authorities within five days. If the president does not announce it within this period, the parliament speaker can announce it instead."
The lawyer explained that the new law is a legalized form of the aggressive pressures and restrictions that have been applied to women, particularly in the past year, but without legal backing until now.
"Before this law, there was an article in Iran's Islamic Penal Code related to non-compliance with hijab, specifically in cases where a woman was completely without a hijab. However, the new law includes additional concepts, and some criticisms are that these concepts have not been properly defined. Terms like 'nudity' or 'improper hijab' have been added, but these were not defined in the previous law. The previous law only discussed the issue of hijab in public, which had minor penalties, mostly fines," Yousefi said.
Yousefi drew attention to Iran's "Guidance Patrols" (the hijab enforcement patrols), pointing out that, "For the past 20 years, there have been major criticisms regarding the lack of legal foundation for the Guidance Patrols. People said that this directive (notice) was not enough and should be based on law. Now, that law has been enacted. After recent events, they wanted to use the law as a more serious tool of pressure. This new law imposes heavy penalties. The fines are much higher, and there are no similar penalties even for fraud or more serious crimes. The law also includes prison sentences and travel bans. These penalties are typically reserved for serious crimes."
The lawyer emphasized that the passing of the "Hijab and Chastity" law has legalized violence against women. He stated that the new law will likely lead to women's exclusion from public and economic life.
"This law will reduce women’s public activities and may create economic problems. The fines will be an economic pressure. Additionally, it will lead to women becoming less visible in society. Even men, for instance, a taxi driver who transports a woman not adhering to the hijab, could be fined under this law. Or a shop or cafe could be shut down if someone inside is not wearing the hijab. These measures could hinder women’s public activities. Of course, these things were happening even before this law. For example, a taxi driver could refuse to give a ride to a woman saying, 'You are not wearing hijab, I will be fined.' These things happened last year, even without the law."
The human rights lawyer believes that the goal behind Iran's new law is to regulate the operations of various bodies responsible for monitoring women’s clothing.
"The goal of this law is to systematize this work. Before the law, there was confusion among agencies about how to enforce measures against those who did not comply with hijab regulations. Now, with the law, the roles of relevant agencies in enforcing the law have been defined. The funding for these operations has been clarified. In other words, with this law, the oppression of women and the violation of their rights will become more systematic," Yousefi added.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Sina Yusufi: İranda ‘Hicab və İffət’ qanununun qəbul edilməsi ilə qadınlara qarşı zorakılıq qanuniləşir