Report Released on Municipality's Actions to Expand Mandatory Hijab in Tehran

Recent news indicates that despite officials' denials, the Tehran Municipality has undertaken "extensive measures" to promote and expand mandatory hijab, including "verbal warnings" in Tehran's metro lines. New reports also include official statistics showing the majority of citizens' indifference to these warnings from officials. On Sunday, July 3, the newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad reported that two performance reports from the municipality regarding mandatory hijab, provided by Tehran Metro to the news website EkhoIran, affiliated with Donya-e-Eqtesad, demonstrate the extensive activities of hijab monitors. This comes as last year, Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran, had stated to EkhoIran regarding the recruitment of personnel titled "hijab monitors": "I don't know where these terms come from?" Zakani recently denied the existence of such personnel in one of the upcoming election debates. Donya-e-Eqtesad writes in its latest news: "It seems that city managers only have a problem with the term hijab monitor, while actions in the field of chastity and hijab have been carried out in the metro, as two reports on the operational activities in the field of hijab and chastity show that the metro protection unit has engaged in extensive verbal warnings and preventing the entry of individuals without headscarves, and even published a performance report of these actions." According to this newspaper, "these two reports refer to a chastity and hijab meeting at the metro operating company in September 2023." Statistics show the ineffectiveness of the warnings. In a chart published in Donya-e-Eqtesad based on the aforementioned two reports, related to three metro stations (Nobonyad, Hosseinabad, and Heravi) on Line 3 of Tehran Metro, it is stated that during a specific time frame, officials issued hijab warnings to 336 individuals at these stations. The figures indicate that the percentage of those who used a headscarf after these warnings was only 29.46%, or 99 individuals. The chart notes that the remaining citizens who were given verbal warnings, over 70% of the individuals, rendered these warnings ineffective in various ways. According to this data, 55.36% of those who were warned about hijab did not pay any attention to the warning, and among those who "paid attention," 20.83% removed their headscarves again after passing the warning area. The rest either did not have a headscarf at all or wore it until reaching the platform and boarding the train, only to remove it immediately after boarding. In December 2023, the increasing presence of hijab monitors and their filming of metro passengers with the help of law enforcement became newsworthy and faced widespread criticism. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi claimed that "no permit has been granted to these individuals," while Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran, referred to it as a "spontaneous popular phenomenon." Last summer, news of the recruitment of 400 hijab monitors in Tehran Metro was published by a news site, but city officials repeatedly denied this news, emphasizing that they had not recruited personnel under the title of "hijab monitor." In the upcoming presidential election debates, the topic of "hijab monitors" has resurfaced, and this time Alireza Zakani, who is one of the presidential candidates, emphasized in his remarks that the approach to those without hijab "can only be achieved through respect." Masoud Pezeshkian, another presidential candidate, addressed Zakani in the second round of the third election debate, saying: "It is unclear who places hijab monitors in the metro, yet they now speak of respect for women." Pezeshkian referred to the "Noor Plan" as "darkness" and criticized Ghalibaf's advisors. Zakani's response to Pezeshkian was: "Mr. Pezeshkian, if you are serious about hijab monitors... since it is a lie, repent." In response to candidates' remarks regarding women's rights, users shared images of women killed during protests following the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the morality police, the presence of hijab monitors in Tehran Metro, and the formation of a tunnel referred to as the "Tunnel of Horror," violent encounters with women on the streets over hijab, and shared related videos. The newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad in its latest report states that "it seems that city managers only have a problem with the term hijab monitor, but at the same time, Tehran Metro has completed and organized its protection unit, one of whose duties was the issue of hijab in the metro."