Iran’s parliament passed a bill on Wednesday that toughens penalties for women and girls who violate the country’s strict dress code, including the mandatory use of a veil. The motion was approved with 152 votes in favour, 34 against and seven abstentions from the total of 201 MPs present. To enter into force, the text of the law must now be ratified by the Guardian Council, a body made up of twelve members, six lawyers and six clergy, which reviews the laws adopted by the chamber and has the power to veto the decisions made there.
The law will have a “trial period” of three years and was approved “after numerous expert reviews,” according to the head of the Iranian parliament’s Judicial and Legal Affairs Commission, Musa Ghazanfarabadi. The text provides for penalties for women who appear in public without a veil, such as fines of up to 1,800 euros, prison sentences of up to five years, confiscation of cars and a driving ban, as well as deductions from salary and work benefits or prohibition of access to Banking services.
The penalties affect not only women who do not cover themselves, but also women and girls who “show nudity on any part of the body or wear thin or tight clothing” in public spaces or on social networks. It therefore prohibits, among other things, the use of ripped trousers, short sleeves or shorts and provides for the dismissal of workers who do not comply with these rules.
UN experts have described the law as “a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to govern through systematic discrimination with the intention of oppressing women and girls.” “The project also violates fundamental rights, including those of cultural participation Life, the ban on gender discrimination and freedom of opinion and expression,” they denounce.
The law was passed just four days after the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, which was marked amid enormous security measures to prevent protests like those that rocked the country last year, in which 500 people died, another 22,000 were arrested and seven Protesters were executed, one of them publicly.
Many Iranian women continue not to wear the veil, despite repression that includes the confiscation of cars, denial of public services, closure of businesses, punishments such as cleaning corpses or the deployment of patrols warning women against exposure in public places cover.
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Iranian President Ebhraim Raisi last week called Amini’s death “an incident” and repeated his accusations against Western countries of a “hybrid war” against Tehran for the event. The President assured this Tuesday during his speech to the United Nations Assembly that his “major objective” is to lead the fight against terrorism in the region and reiterated his interest in “interacting with the international community after Principle of Justice” to facilitate peace in the Middle East.
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