The group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) says it is concerned over the official resumption of morality police patrols and has condemned the "humiliating and disproportionate" sentences handed to women for violations of the mandatory hijab law.
In a statement released on July 24, HRA said the current situation, which includes the sentencing of women for removing their hijabs alongside the Islamic republic's attempts to maintain its international image, must be widely condemned because "inaction is not an option."
HRA also criticized the escalating confrontations with Iranian women and girls, warning that the "dignity, rights, and future of millions of Iranian women" are at risk.
The group urged Iran to respond immediately to the demands of both domestic campaigners and the international community by guaranteeing the rights of women both in law and in practice.
"Now, with the return of the morality police, several women in Iran have received humiliating sentences for not observing the hijab over the last week, a trend that seems to be systematic," the statement read.
The statement condemned recent sentences handed down by hijab courts, which have begun to issue alternative punishments for opponents of mandatory hijab. These have so far included cash fines, referrals to psychiatric treatment centers for mental illness, the provision of public cleaning services, and the deprivation of women of their occupational activities.
The court has recently taken to labeling women opposing mandatory hijab as mentally ill, with judges calling it an "anti-family personality disorder." Those handed such alternative sentences include Iranian actresses, Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi, and Leila Bolukat.
"We are forced to enter a battle that has been imposed on us, but as Iranian women, we have shown that we are not afraid of any battle until we achieve our rights," the HRA statement quoted one woman, whose identity was not revealed for her own safety, as saying.
Another unidentified woman added: "The struggle for gender equality is as old as time. We, as women, with our unshakeable belief in achieving our goals, have shown that we are not afraid of this battle. The reintroduction of the Guidance Patrol [morality police] on the streets is nothing but a futile attempt by the government that could not silence us last year. We will continue this fight."
Acts of civil disobedience against the hijab law -- which requires women and girls over the age of 9 to wear a head scarf in public -- have increased since the death of Mahsa Amini last September while in police custody for an alleged hijab violation.
Resistance to the hijab is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.