Police End Weeks-Long Sit-in of Mandatory Hijab Defenders in Front of Parliament

The round-the-clock sit-in of supporters of mandatory hijab in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly was dismantled by security forces and police. Some Iranian media reported on Friday evening, April 8, that 'FARAJA forces' dispersed the protesters demanding the enforcement of the so-called Hijab and Chastity Law 'after 48 days.' Hamid Rasai, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a member of the Stability Front, confirmed this news and strongly criticized it, stating on social media platform X that this decision 'is either foolishness or influence from whoever and wherever it came from.' However, Amir-Ebrahim Rasouli, a political advisor to Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of Parliament, welcomed this action and tweeted, which was later deleted, that 'the end of the illegal sit-in in front of Parliament came after patient kindness...'. The round-the-clock sit-in by several defenders of mandatory hijab began about seven weeks ago in front of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which the Tehran governor deemed illegal. Nevertheless, several members of the Stability Front and radical political figures defended their actions by attending the sit-in. Several members of Parliament, including Javad Nikbin, the representative of Kashmar, announced that the sit-in participants were being 'paid by someone for each night they sleep in front of Parliament.' On Saturday, following the news of the 'dispersal' of the protesters from in front of Parliament, the Deputy Governor and Tehran's mayor reacted to the announcement of another call for a renewed gathering, stating that 'any call for gathering or sit-in in open spaces requires a permit under the law, and we will confront unauthorized gatherings within the framework of the law.' Some of the sit-in participants and their supporters criticized the security forces' actions against them on social media by publishing videos and photos. In one video, seemingly from the early hours of the event, one of the male protesters states that 'four hundred motorcycles' are heading towards them to end the gathering. In another video, one of the female protesters, indicating that they are in front of the tomb of Ruhollah Khomeini, claims they were taken away by van from the sit-in site and abandoned in various parts of the city. She mentions a woman who has fallen to the ground, stating that 'four hundred security personnel' attacked their gathering and that this female protester was injured in the face. Ghorbanali Salavatiyan, a political figure close to the executive deputy of Masoud Pezeshkian, confirmed the transfer of women who were not from Tehran to the tomb of Ruhollah Khomeini but wrote that the blood on one of the female protesters' faces 'is not from a wound but rather blood smeared on the face.' The police, in a statement released on Saturday regarding this incident, described the injury of this woman as 'completely fabricated and self-inflicted.' The statement further mentioned that these women, 'most of whom came from Qom,' were transferred to Khomeini's tomb at their own request. The so-called 'Hijab and Chastity' law was drafted and then approved after the suppression of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests, but recently Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of Parliament, stated that the enforcement of this law has been postponed by the order of the Supreme National Security Council. Mahmoud Nabavian, the Vice Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Parliament, also recently stated in a video message that the approval of this law was related to events before the Syrian crisis, but with the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the ousted president of that country, the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council ordered the suspension of its implementation to prevent the 'Syrianization of Iran.' The hijab bill was initially submitted by the judiciary in May 2023 with 9 articles to the government, and Ebrahim Raisi's cabinet sent it to Parliament with 15 articles. The Islamic Consultative Assembly expanded this bill to 71 articles and approved its trial implementation for three years. After several back-and-forths, the Guardian Council finally announced in October 2024 that this law was approved by the council. However, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced on March 18, 2025, that the enforcement of this law has been halted by the order of the Supreme National Security Council. Despite government pressures and crackdowns, civil disobedience by girls and women against mandatory hijab in Iran has continued.