Iran's New Hijab Law Seen As 'Vengeful Act' Against Women

Lengthy prison terms, hefty fines, and travel bans.

Those are among the punishments facing women who violate Iran's new hijab law.

Approved on November 30, the Hijab And Chastity law has triggered uproar in the Islamic republic, where even senior clerics have criticized it.

The 74-article law also calls on the public to report alleged violators to the police and penalizes businesses and taxi drivers who refuse to do so.

"You cannot even call this a law," Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent activist and human rights lawyer based in Iran, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

Laws are meant to protect citizens, she said, but the new legislation "robs women of their security on the streets."

A growing number of Iranian women have refused to wear the mandatory head scarf -- a key pillar of Iran's Islamic system.

Iran's 'Ambassadors Of Kindness' Enforce Hijab In New Head Scarf Crackdown

The hijab was central to the unprecedented protests that erupted across Iran in 2022. The demonstrations were triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law.

During the protests, women and girls removed and burned their head scarves.

The authorities waged a brutal crackdown on protesters, killing hundreds and arresting thousands.

SEE ALSO: Special Report: The Protests That Shook Iran's Clerical System

Sotoudeh said many Iranians want those responsible for the deaths to be "punished." Instead, she said, "lawmakers passed a bill in a vengeful act against women and men."

She warned that critics "will take steps" if the law is not repealed, suggesting that protests may be planned.

Sotoudeh has been in and out of prison for years for her activism and taking up sensitive legal cases, including women detained for peacefully protesting the mandatory hijab.

'Unimplementable' Law

In recent years, the authorities have doubled down on their enforcement of the hijab.

They have reintroduced patrols by the so-called morality police that were suspended in the wake of the 2022 protests.

Hijab enforcers line up at the entrance to a subway station in Tehran.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has also established a new unit in Tehran to enforce the hijab. Its members are called "ambassadors of kindness."

In November, the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced the creation of a "clinic" to offer "scientific and psychological treatment" to women who refuse to follow the Islamic dress code.

In response, Iranian psychologists raised the alarm about the consequences of "labeling healthy people as sick."

Sotoudeh and Sedigheh Vasmaghi, a rights activist and Islamic scholar, slammed the new hijab law as "shameful" and "medieval" in a joint statement issued on December 1.

SEE ALSO: How Iran Is Using Mental Illness As A Tool Of Repression

The new legislation has proved so controversial that President Masud Pezeshkian said on live television on December 2 that "it cannot be easily implemented." He also questioned the new penalties for convicted hijab violators.

Even several senior clerics have warned against enforcing the new law.

"Not only are large parts of this law unimplementable...but it defeats its purpose and will lead to the youth hating religious teachings," Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaqeq Damad wrote in an open letter to top clerics on December 2.

In a joint statement on December 4, three prominent guilds representing the entertainment industry said any law that "turns your homeland into a big prison is meaningless" and urged the authorities to repeal it.