Due to Non-Compliance with 'Mandatory Hijab'; A Resident Condemned to 'Cleaning Services'

A member of Iran's medical staff has been sentenced to a series of penalties, including performing 'cleaning services', for 'not adhering to mandatory dress code'. According to the 'HRANA' news agency, an organ of human rights activists in Iran, this female resident was punished by the judicial authority of the Islamic Republic for 'not wearing hijab while driving'. Ali Khaleqi, a criminal law professor at Tehran University, criticized the ruling, stating that banning a physician (resident) from employment in all government agencies, specifically in 'government medical centers', due to not wearing hijab while driving in the street is 'completely unjustified and contrary to legal standards'. In recent months, following the solidarity of many doctors with nationwide protests and the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement, governmental pressure on members of this profession has increased, leading in some cases to the closure or suspension of their activities. Meanwhile, part of the medical community has attempted to protest against these governmental pressures through civil actions; for instance, in mid-March 2023, a week after an Islamic Republic body ordered the 'mandatory hijab' for women in pharmacies, some 'male pharmacists and technicians' wore 'black hijabs' in protest. Ali Khaleqi has deemed the sentencing of this resident to 'cleaning services' as contrary to 'Article 64 of the Islamic Penal Code' and intended to 'impose hard labor for humiliation and harassment'. Previously, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic had issued alternative sentences to imprisonment for individuals who do not comply with 'mandatory hijab', imposing the penalty of 'mandatory cleaning services'. According to HRANA, a recent branch of the criminal court sentenced a woman to '270 hours of free cleaning services' in the building of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Interior and its subsidiaries for 'not adhering to hijab'. While such punishments are imposed by the Iranian government with the aim of humiliating opponents of mandatory hijab, reports indicate their ineffectiveness in reducing protests, and investigations by the Persian section of 'Voice of America' suggest an 'increase in the emigration of Iranian doctors and nurses' in recent months.