Guardian Council Confirms Finalization of 'Chastity and Hijab' Law; Ambiguity in Law's Notification Weeks After Approval

The spokesperson for the Guardian Council finally confirmed the approval of the bill known as 'Chastity and Hijab' after several weeks of announcements by two members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. He stated that the bill is now in the hands of the Parliament. In recent weeks, the news of this bill's approval by the Guardian Council and its submission to the Parliament's presiding board faced widespread reactions. Hadi Tahan Nazif, the spokesperson for the Guardian Council, told reporters today, 'During this time, several members of Parliament informed about this matter, and there was no need for this issue.' Regarding the implementation of the 'Chastity and Hijab' law, he mentioned that the Council only reviews the bills for 'compliance with the Constitution and Sharia principles' and does not engage in 'expert discussions.' He also noted that this bill has gone back and forth between the Parliament and the Guardian Council six times. Shortly after these statements, the news website Khabar Online published an interview with the spokesperson of the Parliament's presiding board, who stated that the 'Chastity and Hijab' law has not yet been sent to the Parliament for 'legal proceedings.' Alireza Salimi said that when the law reaches the Parliament, it must be given to the government by the Speaker of the Parliament, and the President must notify it; otherwise, the Speaker (Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf) will issue the notification himself. This interview was removed from the website shortly after. The removal of the Parliament spokesperson's news from Khabar Online. According to Article 85 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, the review and approval of certain bills can be delegated to the Parliament's commissions by the Parliament's decision, and after approval in the commission, it can be sent to the Guardian Council for final approval without the need for discussion and voting in the public session. The 'Chastity and Hijab' bill was approved in this manner. The unconventional process of approving the 'Chastity and Hijab' bill, its multiple back-and-forths between the Guardian Council and the Parliament, and the ambiguous and contradictory statements regarding its status come at a time when the latest version of its full text has not been made public, and it is unclear what changes have been made to it. Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the Fourteenth Government, during the campaign to determine a replacement for Ebrahim Raisi among six candidates selected by the Guardian Council, stated, 'I guarantee that the entire government will stand against compulsory patrols, filtering, and external pressures in all sessions and fully.' Now, the Deputy for Parliamentary Affairs of the Fourteenth Government states that the government 'currently has no plans to amend the Chastity and Hijab law.' Shahram Dabiri said, 'The bill has already been approved and, in fact, has not yet been notified.' The spokesperson for the Guardian Council emphasized that the notification of laws is carried out by the Parliament and the government, citing Article 1 of the Civil Law. Article 1 of the Civil Law states that the resolutions of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the results of referendums are notified to the President after going through legal procedures, and the President must sign it within five days and notify the executors and issue the order for its publication. Earlier, Fatemeh Mohajerani, the spokesperson for Pezeshkian's government, in response to a question about how the 'Chastity and Hijab' law would be notified by the government, said, 'Cultural issues cannot be imposed by force; they must be instilled through belief.' The ambiguity regarding the fate of this bill has intensified as several weeks have passed since two members of Parliament announced its approval by the Guardian Council, but according to the legal deadline for notifying this law, it has neither been sent to the official newspaper by the President nor by the Speaker of the Parliament. In early October, the human rights organization 'Hengaw' reported that this bill emphasizes not only violent confrontations with women and the queer community regarding compulsory hijab but also broader gender segregation in universities, administrative and educational centers, parks, and recreational places, and even gender segregation in the hospital treatment sector. According to this report, the bill grants permission for 'field confrontations' with women to three intelligence agencies of the Islamic Republic, including the Ministry of Intelligence, the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Fara Ja Intelligence Organization, as well as the police command, Basij of the Revolutionary Guards, and the so-called 'Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Headquarters.' The UN fact-finding committee, coinciding with the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini in the custody of the morality police, warned that the Islamic Republic has intensified its efforts to suppress the fundamental rights of women and girls and 'destroy the remnants of women's activities.' Despite increased government pressures to enforce compulsory hijab that endanger citizens' lives, the Associated Press reported a significant presence of women without compulsory hijab in public spaces in Iranian cities, stating, 'Seeing women without compulsory hijab in Iranian cities is increasingly becoming a norm.'