Guardian Council Publishes Details on Reasons for Rejecting the 'Chastity and Hijab' Bill: Use of Ambiguous Concepts and 'Non-Persian' Terms

The Guardian Council emphasized that it has not yet received the revised version of the 'Chastity and Hijab' bill from the parliament and provided journalists with details of the objections and ambiguities that need to be addressed by the parliament. Hadi Tahan Nazif, spokesperson for the Guardian Council, announced on Saturday, December 4, during a press conference in response to a question about the latest status of this bill that these objections and ambiguities must be resolved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Among the ambiguities raised by the Guardian Council are concepts such as 'privacy', 'impropriety', 'tight', 'body display', 'disturbing the peace between men and women in the family, increasing divorce and social harms, and diminishing family values', and 'cooperation with management centers of religious seminaries'. Among the objections raised by the Guardian Council to the mandatory hijab provision in the 'Chastity and Hijab' bill are the use of 'non-Persian' terms such as 'committee' and 'park', 'priority handling of crimes under this law', and the conditions for 'passport confiscation'. The Guardian Council criticized the use of a term like 'committee' despite the fact that the name of one of the first security and law enforcement institutions formed immediately after the establishment of the Islamic Republic was the 'Islamic Revolutionary Committee'. Institutions such as 'Imam Khomeini Relief Committee' and 'National Olympic Committee' also continue to operate under the same names. On Tuesday, October 24, the Guardian Council announced that this provision was returned to the Islamic Consultative Assembly to resolve 'ambiguities'. Meanwhile, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, recently reported that ambiguities in the 'Chastity and Hijab' bill had been resolved in the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Assembly and emphasized that after receiving the report from this commission, the revised text would be sent to the Guardian Council. The 'Chastity and Hijab' bill was initially prepared in 9 articles by the judiciary and was sent to the parliament with 15 articles after being presented to the government. Ultimately, after being reviewed in the Legal and Judicial Commission of the Assembly, with the criminalization of various aspects of mandatory hijab, it was approved as 'Article 85' and without being presented in a public session with 72 articles. The Iranian government's efforts to enforce mandatory hijab, including through the 'Chastity and Hijab' bill, have faced widespread domestic and international criticism. The Iranian Writers' Association recently stated in a statement that 'the deprivation of freedom of dress through the imposition of mandatory hijab' is the first step of the 'Islamic regime' to suppress women and a license 'to intensify various oppressions against women'. A group of countries also condemned the passage of the 'Chastity and Hijab' law in the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran in a joint statement, deeming it to exacerbate systematic discrimination against women in Iran. Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, has also expressed concern about the situation of women's rights in Iran, stating: 'Iranian women and girls are subjected to gender apartheid and discrimination.' Furthermore, Farough Kanani, a sociologist, has explained the possible reasons for the rejection of the 'Chastity and Hijab' provision by the Guardian Council.