"Alternative Bill"; The Government's New Game to Continue Imposing Mandatory Hijab

In a press conference, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the government of Mohsen Medicalian stated that the Public Culture Council will act according to existing regulations regarding "chastity and hijab" "until a new path is determined" and mentioned that one of the government's proposals is to present an alternative bill. Abbas Salehi emphasized that the Legal Deputy of the Presidency will advance the alternative bill and that the "Hijab Law" was not communicated with the opinion of "relevant authorities". In this regard, Abbas Goudarzi, the spokesperson for the Board of Directors of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also stated on January 8 that we were obliged to communicate this law, but the Supreme National Security Council announced that "communication should be delayed until the government presents its reform bill, thus this law will be communicated to the government at the appropriate time." On the other hand, opponents continue to insist on the communication of the law, and Mohammad Taghi Naqdali, the Deputy Chairman of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Assembly, stated in a public session on January 19 that "the law must be communicated without consideration, and if you think that with caution and consideration, the situation of norm-breaking and hijab unveiling will improve, that is a false hope." It is worth noting that some "differences of opinion" among the officials of the Islamic Republic are not about the principle of imposing mandatory hijab, but currently, the exchanges between supporters and opponents of the communication of the "Chastity and Hijab Law" in the Iranian government are about the timing and manner of implementing this restriction against women. Contrary to the claims of the Supreme National Security Council, the head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic is also seeking the communication of the law from the Speaker of the Assembly and on December 3, in response to the wave of opposition against the law known as "Chastity and Hijab", stated that "a law has been established in this regard, which must be communicated and executed" and emphasized that "in any case, whenever a law is established, it must be executed." According to reports, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i, in a joint meeting with the Islamic Consultative Assembly, described hijablessness as intolerable and considered it a "national issue" and stated that the continuation of "this situation is in no way acceptable by any logic." However, critics of the government believe that the current hijab and chastity law or any proposal that the Medicalian government has in this regard is fundamentally wrong and contradicts individual freedoms and human rights. Many opponents of this law believe that the Medicalian government is trying to continue imposing mandatory hijab with legal tools in society by making slight changes to penalties and types of interactions. Meanwhile, numerous reports from various cities in Iran are published daily, indicating the resistance of Iranian women against the imposition of mandatory hijab. The law known as "Chastity and Hijab", which is organized in 74 articles and 5 chapters, was finalized recently after multiple exchanges between the Assembly, the Guardian Council, and the Expediency Discernment Council of the Islamic Republic. According to this law, women who appear without mandatory hijab more than four times "in the real or virtual space" will face accusations such as "promoting or advertising nudity, immorality, hijab unveiling, or bad hijab" and will be sentenced to at least a fine of 330 million tomans. This punishment will also include "prohibition of leaving the country for up to two years" and "prohibition of activity in the virtual space from six months to two years" at the discretion of the judicial authority, and "in subsequent cases" the monetary penalty will increase to 500 million tomans with "one degree of intensification". Based on the table of penalties from grade one to grade eight of the Islamic Penal Code published in the media, repeating the appearance without mandatory hijab more than four times will lead to a grade four monetary penalty (up to 330 million tomans) and "one degree of intensification" means increasing the monetary penalty to grade three (up to 500 million tomans). Women who support optional covering will be sentenced to monetary fines ranging from five to 165 million tomans for their first four appearances without mandatory hijab "in public view". On the other hand, according to Article 71 of this law, the government is required to allocate an annual budget to the Islamic Republic's Law Enforcement Command for the provision of cameras for this plan. In part of this law, designing or advertising items such as clothing, body, and toys will also be considered a crime if, according to the authors' claims, it "promotes nudity" and "hijab unveiling and bad hijab" and will face monetary and supplementary penalties. According to this law, the presence of opponents of mandatory hijab in real or virtual space will lead to penalties for owners of virtual and non-virtual businesses, organizers of groups and tours, and platforms for broadcasting audio or video in virtual space. International human rights organizations, including various mechanisms of the United Nations, have repeatedly commented on this law in recent months and called for its immediate repeal.