which require women to cover their heads in public.
According to the Guardian, the opening of a “clinical treatment for the removal of the hijab” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Morals. He said the clinic would provide “scientific and psychological treatment for removing the hijab”.
Iranian women and human rights groups expressed outrage at the announcement.
Shima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was the target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move was “shameful”, adding: “The idea of setting up clinics to ‘treat’ uncovered women she is creepy. People are separated from society simply because they don’t conform to the dominant ideology.”
Iranian human rights lawyer Hossein Raeesi said the idea of a clinic to treat women who do not comply with hijab laws it is “neither Islamic nor aligned with Iranian law.” He also said it was troubling that the statement came from the Women and Family Department of Tehran’s Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Morals, which comes under the direct authority of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The news has since spread among the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest groups and female students, causing fear and resistance.
A young woman from Iran, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison. We are struggling to make ends meet and we have power cuts but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about. If there was ever a time for all of us to get back on the streets, it’s now, or they’ll lock us all in.”
The student who stripped in protest
The announcement about the opening of the clinic comes after state media reported, according to reports, in protest of being assaulted by campus security guards for violating the hijab lawwas transferred to a psychiatric clinic.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say there are evidence of torture, violence and forced medication to protesters and political dissidents who are considered mentally unstable by the authorities and placed in state psychiatric services.
Rights groups have also expressed concern over a crackdown on women deemed to be breaking Iran’s mandatory dress code, saying there has been a recent surge in arrests, enforced disappearances and business closures linked to perceived violations of hijab laws.
Last week, the Center for Human Rights in Iran highlighted the case of Roshanak Molaei Alisah, a 25-year-old woman who it said was arrested after confronting a man who harassed her on the way to wearing her hijab. The NGO said his current whereabouts are unknown.
