Threatening Text Messages Sent to Pedestrians to Enforce Mandatory Hijab; Legal Experts Advise Women to Ignore

Some news sources have published messages attributed to a number of citizens in Isfahan, indicating that officials of the Islamic Republic have sent threatening text messages to several women, asking them to comply with mandatory hijab laws. According to documents released by the legal advisory group Dadban on Wednesday, June 13, a group of citizens in Isfahan reported receiving a text message that included their real identities, such as their first and last names, requesting them to adhere to the mandatory hijab. These messages are often signed by the 'Headquarters for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Police Command, and Social and Crime Prevention Department of Isfahan's Judiciary' and have been sent to individuals who were not in vehicles but were walking around the city. Additionally, the Telegram channel 'Vahid Online,' which follows social and political news in Iran, published a similar report titled 'Text Message Threats to Pedestrians in Isfahan to Impose Head Covering.' This report included images of received messages, stating that these messages belonged to citizens who 'say they received anti-dress messages and ask how we could have been identified without being in a car.' The Dadban legal advisory group emphasized that the identification of these individuals is 'not done using recognition cameras, but through various methods such as connecting to local antennas in specific locations' or 'reports by familiar individuals and presence in places like banks where personal information is collected,' and 'their goal is clearly not to create a legal case,' but 'to instill fear and terror in women.' This human rights group also advised citizens to 'not panic or be afraid' upon receiving such messages and to 'ignore such threats'; and 'only take necessary legal actions if summoned by a judicial authority through the Sana system.' Increased pressure on women in Iran to comply with mandatory hijab laws returned to the streets of Iran with the implementation of a policy called 'Noor Plan' instead of 'Guidance Patrol' starting from April 14. Meanwhile, citizen reports indicate that civil resistance among women against the pressures of various institutions of the Islamic Republic to enforce mandatory hijab and violate the individual and social rights of half of Iran's population continues. In this context, Sediqeh Vasmaghi, an Islamic scholar who has removed her hijab in protest against the Islamic Republic's policies towards women and is facing judicial harassment, emphasized that the government's fight against the demand of 'the majority of the people' for freedom of dress is 'a futile political game' that women will end with their resistance.