Iran: Revision of mandatory headscarf law under consideration
Authorities in Iran on Saturday asked the judiciary and parliament to revise the 1983 law on the compulsory wearing of the headscarf in order to find a way out of the protest movement that has erupted for more than two months in the country.
Iran has been facing daily protests since the September 16 death of Mahsha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman three days after she was arrested by morality police for not wearing her headscarf properly.
Since then, Iranian women have taken to the streets and some have removed or burned their headscarves in public.
Last Saturday, Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said that “parliament and judicial authorities are working” on the issue of making the headscarf mandatory, without specifying whether the legislation might be changed.
The issue is particularly sensitive in Iran with two opposing camps: conservatives who insist on the 1983 law and progressives who want women to be able to choose whether or not to wear the headscarf.
The headscarf became compulsory in Iran four years after the Islamic revolution of 1979. The morality police were created to “spread the culture of modesty and wearing the headscarf”.
According to the 1983 law, women in Iran – local and foreign – regardless of religion, must wear headscarves and loose clothing in public.
As of July 5, a new law “on headscarf and modesty in the country” promoted by Iranian President Ebrahim Raishi imposed new restrictions on women: the headscarf must cover not only their hair, but also their neck. shoulders.
However, during the press conference held yesterday in Tehran, Raisi appeared to be open to possible changes in the legislation: “Our Constitution has values and principles that are firm and unshakable (…) but there are ways to review them,” he said.
Many victims
After Amini’s death and the protests that followed, more and more women started going around without the headscarf, mainly in the northern part of Tehran.
On September 24, a week after the protests began, the main reformist party in Iran called on the authorities to lift the headscarf requirement.
The Islamic People’s Union of Iran, founded by close associates of reformist former president Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), says it has “asked” the authorities to “prepare the legal tools that will pave the way for the annulment of the legislation . of the obligation of the headscarf”, according to a statement from the party at the end of September.
The party also called on the Iranian authorities to “officially announce the end of the morality police” and “allow peaceful protests”.
A total of 448 protesters have been killed since the protests began, according to the Norway-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council says yesterday that “more than 200 people”, civilians and members of the order’s forces, have been killed, while on Monday General Amirali Khazizadeh of the Revolutionary Guards said more than 300 had been killed.
Besides, thousands of people have been arrested. Yesterday another film actress, Mitra Hazar, was arrested at her home, because she recently posted on her Instagram account a video of the demonstrations that took place in Berlin in October in solidarity with the movement in Iran.
Source: RES-MPE