Just weeks before the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, Iranian authorities are developing a new Bill on hijab-wearing that experts worry would enshrine unprecedentedly harsh punitive penalties.
The 70-article drafting bill proposes a variety of measures, including substantially higher prison sentences for women who refuse to wear the veil, harsh new fines for celebrities and corporations who break the restrictions, and the use of artificial intelligence to identify women who violate the dress code.
According to experts, the Bill, which has yet to be passed, serves as a reminder to Iranians that the regime would not budge from its stance on the hijab despite the country’s massive protests last year.
The judiciary submitted the Bill to the government for consideration earlier this year, which was then forwarded to parliament and approved by the Legal and Judicial Commission. It will be presented to the Board of Governors on Sunday before being debated on the House floor on Tuesday.
In the next two months, Iran’s parliament will work on refining the language and voting on the Bill.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in September after being imprisoned by the regime’s infamous morality police and transported to a re-education centre for allegedly violating the country’s conservative clothing code.
While not formally abolished, the morality police had mainly withdrawn following last year’s protests, which have gradually subsided. However, earlier this month, police spokesman General Saeed Montazerolmahdi stated that the morality police would continue notifying and detaining women caught in public without the Islamic hijab.
In Iran, the hijab has long been a source of dispute. It was prohibited during leader Reza Shah’s emancipation of women in 1936 until his successor repealed the prohibition in 1941. Following the ouster of the last shah in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the hijab became required in 1983.
Iran has long regarded Article 368 of its Islamic penal code as the hijab legislation, which specifies that people who violate the dress code face up to two months in prison or a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials, which is equivalent to USD 1.18 to USD 11.82 now.
Failure to wear the hijab would be reclassified as a more serious offense, punishable by a five-to-ten-year prison sentence as well as a fine of up to 360 million Iranian rials (USD 8,508).
According to Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, the fine is much beyond what the average Iranian could afford.
To enforce the new rule, Iranian police must create and strengthen AI systems to identify perpetrators of illegal behavior using tools such as fixed and mobile cameras, according to another section.
State media stated earlier this year that cameras would be deployed in public places to detect women who violate the country’s hijab law.
Businesses that fail to implement the hijab requirement will risk harsher fines, potentially equal to three months of commercial earnings, as well as restrictions on leaving the country or participating in public or cyber-activity for up to two years under the new draft law.
