The Iranian state is planning to open a treatment clinic for women who violate mandatory hijab laws that require them to cover their heads in public. Announcing the opening of the “Hijab Removal Treatment Clinic”, Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Prevention of Virtue and Evil, said the establishment would offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”. . ,
A report by Iran International quoted Talebi as saying, “This center will be established for scientific and psychological treatment of hijab removal, especially for the teenage generation, young adults and women seeking social and Islamic identity and this Visiting the center is optional.” That being said.
Specifically, the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice comes under the direct authority of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This institution is reportedly responsible for defining and enforcing strict religious standards in Iran, especially related to women’s dress.
move away spark of anger
The announcement comes just weeks after a university student, who stripped down to her underwear on a Tehran campus in protest of harsh treatment by dress code enforcers, was detained and transferred to a psychiatric hospital for mental health treatment. Sent.
News of the new clinic has spread through “Women, Life, Freedom” protest groups and among women, sparking fear and outrage.
Speaking to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, a young woman from Iran said, “It will not be a clinic, it will be a prison.”
“We are struggling to meet our needs and have power cuts, but this state is concerned about a piece of cloth. If there was a time for all of us to get back on the streets, it is now or They’ll lock us all up,” she said.
According to Hossein Raisi, an Iranian human rights lawyer, the idea of a clinic to treat women who do not follow hijab laws is “neither Islamic nor in line with Iranian law”.
Use of psychiatric facilities to prevent dissent
Iranian authorities have been widely accused of using mental health institutions to crack down on dissent against the strict hijab law. This method has been condemned by human rights advocates as psychologically abusive and manipulative.
Speaking to The Guardian, UK-based Iranian journalist Sima Sabet, who was the target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move was “shameful”.
“The idea of setting up clinics to ‘treat’ exposed women is appalling, where people are ostracized from society simply because they do not conform to the ruling ideology,” he said.
Since the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement began, radicals have increased efforts to enforce strict dress codes for women. Artists including actresses Afsane Beygan, Azadeh Samadi and Leila Bolukat, who posted photos of themselves without hijab, were reportedly ordered by the court to undergo weekly visits to psychiatric centers for mental health certificates in response to their conduct.
The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement began in Iran following the death of young woman Mahsa Amini in police custody over a hijab violation in September 2022.
