Associated Press Report: 'Elections' Increase Tensions Over Mandatory Hijab

The Associated Press reported from Tehran on Wednesday, July 6, that as the presidential election approaches, tensions regarding the repression of women under the pretext of mandatory hijab are escalating. According to the report, police vans are reportedly patrolling main squares and intersections in Tehran every afternoon in search of women with loose headscarves and those daring enough to go without head coverings. Renewed pressure on enforcing the mandatory hijab, referred to by the police as the 'Light Plan,' had begun before Ibrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash. The Associated Press analysis suggests that whoever wins the voting on Friday to replace this 'hardline cleric' will influence the intensity of this plan and Iran's response to any further unrest. The report adds that the renewed crackdown on women regarding the mandatory hijab comes just two years after widespread protests over the murder of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing a 'government-approved headscarf.' A United Nations panel has found that the 22-year-old girl lost her life due to 'physical violence' inflicted upon her by the Islamic Republic. The report further states that Amini's death sparked months of unrest that ended in bloody repression and temporarily removed the 'morality police' from the streets. However, videos have now emerged of women being forcefully loaded into police vans. The Associated Press adds that 'lawmakers' continue to impose harsher penalties. Meanwhile, Islamic Republic security officials have 'seized thousands of vehicles from women who did not cover their hair and have targeted businesses that provide them services.' Previously, Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated on June 19 that reports of violent crackdowns, including widespread arrests of women and girls in Iran for not adhering to the mandatory hijab, continue to be received. In his report to the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, he noted that the new measures by the Islamic Republic to enforce hijab laws would lead to more deterrent and punitive actions against women and girls with the bill 'Supporting Families by Promoting the Culture of Modesty and Hijab.' Earlier, Voice of America reported that the broadcast of violent arrest images of two women by the Guidance Patrol on Sunday, June 18, on social media has turned the crackdown on women under the pretext of mandatory hijab into a trending topic among social media users, as government candidates evade responsibility and their records of supporting the Guidance Patrol and hijab enforcers. The issue of the Guidance Patrol has become a central topic of discussion among government candidates vying for the presidency to attract votes, to the extent that it has become a tool for exposing each other within the government. The presence of Guidance Patrol vehicles in the streets and the arrest of women under the pretext of mandatory hijab continue; no election candidate is willing to defend it.