Three Cultural Institutions Criticize Mandatory Hijab Law: The Homeland Becomes a Prison

Three cultural institutions in Iran issued a statement on Wednesday, December 14, criticizing the Islamic Republic's mandatory hijab law, known as 'Chastity and Hijab', and called for its repeal, stating that if implemented, this law would turn the homeland into a large prison. The House of Cinema, House of Theater, and House of Music of Iran described this law as 'bad and divisive' and expressed their 'serious concern' about it. The statement further mentioned that 'widespread concern is directed towards the anti-national and divisive spirit of this law, which, disregarding principles of wisdom and rationality and the need for social acceptance, expands the circle of criminalization beyond half of the society, fueling the most unprecedented and largest grounds for national division, which only suggests a predominant intent to undermine social tranquility.' These three cultural institutions stated: 'In our opinion, the cultural and artistic community believes that a law that considers children criminals merely for a smirk and necessitates separation from family, imprisonment, and reform centers will never have popular acceptance for implementation.' The statement added: 'A law that extends a foreign language over the native one yields nothing but fragmentation in society, and a law that considers living in the homeland as a 'punishment' only transforms the concept of 'homeland' into a large semantic prison.' The House of Cinema, House of Theater, and House of Music of Iran called upon all 'greats, thinkers, jurists, and sociologists' and 'all those concerned for the great nation of Iran' to 'prevent the implementation of this 'bad and divisive' law with logic, reasoning, and good intentions.' Previously, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced on Saturday, December 10, that the mandatory hijab law, known as 'Hijab and Chastity', would be communicated to the government on December 23. The restriction of women's freedom under the guise of what is called the 'Chastity and Hijab Law' has been organized in 74 articles and 5 chapters and has been finalized after multiple exchanges between the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Guardian Council, and the Expediency Discernment Council of the Islamic Republic. According to this 'law', women who appear without mandatory hijab more than four times 'in real or virtual space' will face accusations such as 'promoting or advertising nudity, immorality, unveiling, or improper dress' and will be sentenced to at least a fine of 330 million tomans. This punishment, 'at the discretion of the judicial authority', will also include 'prohibition of leaving the country for up to two years' and 'prohibition of activity in virtual space from six months to two years', and 'in subsequent levels', the monetary penalty will increase to 500 million tomans with 'one degree of intensification'. Based on the table of fines from grade one to grade eight of the Islamic Penal Code published in the media, repeating more than four times the presence without the mandatory hijab as specified by the Islamic Republic leads to a grade four monetary penalty (up to 330 million tomans), and 'one degree of intensification' means increasing the monetary penalty to grade three (up to 500 million tomans). Women who do not comply with the government's restrictions for enforcing mandatory hijab will be fined between five to 165 million tomans for the first four offenses. Moreover, according to Article 71 of this law, the government is obliged to allocate an annual budget for the provision of cameras for this plan to the command of the Islamic Republic's Law Enforcement Force. In part of this law, designing or advertising items such as clothing, body, and toys, if claimed by its authors to be 'promoting nudity' and 'unveiling and improper dress', is also considered a crime and will face monetary and supplementary penalties. According to this law, the presence of opponents of mandatory hijab in real or virtual space will lead to penalties, including for owners of virtual and non-virtual businesses, organizers of groups, tours, and platforms for publishing audio or visual content in virtual space. The publication of the content of the law known as 'Hijab and Chastity' and the penalties set for opponents of mandatory hijab has faced a wave of reactions from social media users. Following the killing of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September 2022, which led to the largest nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic, women and girls in Iran have increasingly insisted on their right to choose their attire, engaging in public and virtual spaces without mandatory hijab. The Iranian government's efforts to enforce mandatory hijab over the past two years have also been fruitless so far. On the other hand, the suppression of women under the pretext of mandatory hijab by the Islamic Republic has led to widespread international criticism. In the latest instance of these criticisms, European Parliament representatives on December 8 adopted a resolution calling for the repeal of 'discriminatory laws' of the Iranian government against Iranian women and girls. They criticized the 'Chastity and Hijab Law', emphasizing that the suppression of women by the Iranian government could lead to 'gender apartheid' and called for the dissolution of the 'morality police' and other 'repressive institutions'. May Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, also reported on November 2 that the human rights situation of women and girls in Iran has worsened. The UN fact-finding committee also warned on the second anniversary of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini's death in the custody of the morality police 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'.