As Iran’s presidential vote approaches, tensions rise over headscarf crackdown

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Every afternoon in Iran’s capital, police cars drive through main Tehran squares and intersections, searching for women who dare not wear headscarves at all.

The renewed crackdown comes two years after massive protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, after she was detained for not wearing a shawl as per the government’s preference. A joint country panel has found that the 22-year-old man’s death was caused by “physical violence”. It was affected through climate,

Amini’s death sparked months of unrest, resulting in a bloody crackdown and police disappearing from the streets in a show of morality. However, videos are now emerging of women being physically forced into cars by police as lawmakers push for harsher consequences. Meanwhile, the government has seized thousands of vehicles in the case of exposing women’s hair and has also targeted the companies providing them.

The renewed hijab push, which police are calling the Nour – or “Light” – plan, began before the death of President Ibrahim Raisi in a helicopter attack, and whoever wins the vote to replace the radical cleric on Friday will have How intense this regime may become – and how Iran reacts to any prolonged unrest.

“An intervention under the Nour plan will take us into darkness,” reformist presidential candidate Massoud Pezeshkian recently told a group of female supporters.

Enforcement began to escalate in April, with online films showing women having violent encounters with uniformed law enforcement officers as well as female enforcers wearing all kinds of flimsy chador.

While previous police have not published arrest numbers in connection with the crackdown and it has not received major media attention, it has been widely discussed in Iran. However, many women continue to wear their hijabs loosely or leave them draped around their shoulders when walking around Tehran.

On a fresh afternoon in northern Tehran, as women sat in cafes and other community playgrounds, a police officer in his 50s said to people passing by: “Please cover yourselves, ladies,” and the nearest one slowly Muttered: “Oh God, I’m tired of repeating this without paying any attention.”

“We know the police are not eager to fight the women, but there is pressure on them,” said Fatemeh, a 34-year-old math teacher, who gave only her first name for fear of retribution. “Sooner or later, officials will realize that retreating would be better for their interests.”

Iran and neighboring Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are the only countries where the hijab is more important – even conservative Saudi Arabia has pulled back from its morality patrol. The women go to school, paint and live out their lives in Iran, with radicals insisting that the hijab be enforced.

This garment has long been associated with Iranian politics. Former ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi stopped it in 1936, part of his efforts to imitate the West. The ban only lasted five years, but many middle- and upper-class Iranian women chose not to wear it.

Later in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, one of the key women who helped overthrow the Shah adopted a much more conservative chador. However others protested the decision of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to design women in the community to wear hijab. In 1983, this was a law, enforced with consequences including fines and a maximum of two months in jail.

Amini’s death in September 2022 followed months of protests and a security crackdown, in which more than 500 people were killed and more than 22,000 detained. However, in less than two years, radicals within Iran’s theocracy began taking action.

The federal government’s insistence on enforcing hijab also reflects its conspiratorial approach towards the region. Iran’s national police chief, General Ahmad Reza Radan, has alleged without providing evidence that the country’s enemies are planning to become society’s culture by encouraging women to avoid the veil.

“Thousands of women have already had their cars arbitrarily confiscated as punishment for violating Iran’s veil laws,” Amnesty Global said in March. “Others were prosecuted and faced other punishments such as being whipped or sentenced to prison or fined or being forced to attend ‘morality’ classes.”

On Saturday, police said they had stopped about 8,000 cars charged at women not wearing hijab for the Eid al-Ghadir holiday, celebrated by Shias.

There has been pushback for this too such unhealthy companies He hands over women who are not wearing hijab.

Hadi Ghaemi, chief director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said, “The Islamic Republic is pursuing its female activists and silencing them through imprisonment and abuse in order to distract from its presidential ‘election’ ” , The center said at least 12 women activists have been sentenced to jail for their work since Raisi’s death.

However there are signs that Iran’s government and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, are aware of the dangers of increasing enforcement. A Bill passed by Iran’s Parliament The provision carrying a 10-year prison sentence for hijab violations has not yet been approved by the country’s Parents Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei.

So far, few presidential contenders, only Pezeshkian, have criticized the hijab law. Others, including Tied Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, called for softer enforcement of the law. Candidate Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a Shia cleric, criticized the usefulness of violence against women, declaring that police would have to use “the language of trust and gratitude” rather than batons.

In the meantime, Jailed Nobel laureate Nargess MohammadiA women’s rights activist, has issued a resolution from prison urging a boycott of the presidential election, saying it only supports “a regime that believes in repression, terror and violence.”

At a recent Friday prayer in Tehran, women uniformly attended wearing chadors, as they always do.

“Every woman should cover herself with the veil, it is a command from Allah,” said Masoumeh Ahmadi, a 49-year-old housewife.

However, there may be differences of opinion even among some pious people.

Ahmadi’s good friend, Zahra Kashani, 37, said, “Yes, it is God’s order, but as far as I have learned, it is not necessary for all women.”

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Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.