TO HIJAB OR NOT TO HIJAB

THAT IS THE QUESTION

The Complete Iranian Head Covering

Varieties of Hijab Worn in Iran

And No One Knows the Answer.  According to US and European media, Iran is again cracking down on women who fail to wear their hijab properly.  As noted in the January 18, 2023 edition of Wired, “Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi introduced additional hijab and chastity restrictions in August [2022]. Women deemed violators of the law can lose access to banks, public transportation, and other essential government services. Repeat offenders can spend years in jail or in forced morality schooling.”  Continuing, the piece states that the Iranian government may be using facial recognition software to track down those who bare their hair in public.

BUT, when I was in Iran during February 2023, I saw more and more women, generally younger ones, with no head coverings.  Cf. MODERN IRAN-- A STUDY IN CONTRASTS (substack.com).  No one took issue with them.

However, adding to the Wired piece, CNN commented August 2, 2023 that:

“Just weeks ahead of the one-year anniversary of the mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini [a Kurd, a group often used by the US and Israel to stir up trouble], Iranian authorities are considering a draconian new bill on hijab-wearing that experts say would enshrine unprecedentedly harsh punitive measures into law.

The 70-article draft law sets out a range of proposals, including much longer prison terms for women who refuse to wear the veil, stiff new penalties for celebrities and businesses who flout the rules, and the use of artificial intelligence to identify women in breach of the dress code.

Experts said the bill, which has not yet been passed, was a warning to Iranians that the regime would not back down from its stance on the hijab despite the mass demonstrations that rocked the country last year…

The hijab has long been a point of contention in Iran. It was barred in 1936 during leader Reza Shah’s emancipation of women, until his successor lifted the ban in 1941. In 1983 the hijab became mandatory after the last shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Iran has traditionally considered Article 368 of its Islamic penal code as the hijab law, which states that those in breach of the dress code face between 10 days to two months in prison, or a fine between 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials, what is today between $1.18 to $11.82.

The new bill would reclassify failure to wear the hijab as a more severe offense, punishable by a five-to-ten-year prison sentence as well as a higher fine of up to 360 million Iranian rials ($8,508).

That fine is far beyond what the average Iranian could pay…”

ABC News reported July 24, 2023 that the Iranian morality police were using unmarked vans and stationing officers in Tehran’s subway to harass women, even when accompanied by their husbands.  The police threaten bare-headed women, follow them, and, on occasion, arrest them.

Pick a Western media outlet and you get more of the same.

Yet, according to the August 5, 2023 Irish Times, businesses are now targeted by the government.  “When women can no longer be arrested in the streets over the hijab, the Islamic republic has chosen to crack down on businesses and send its message to society this way,” said a businessman whose shop faced closure over the same issue recently.”

Continuing, the paper said “Last weekend, the authorities shuttered the Tehran office of leading online insurance company Azki after a photograph of female employees without the hijab appeared on social media. Online bookstore Taaghche was also threatened with closure after a similar photograph of its staff became public.”

But When I Sought Clarity from Iranian Contacts…I got almost nothing.  One fellow said “Your question requires a long discussion, but, briefly, that’s certainly not the image the US media is giving.”  Another commented that Iranian women had voted to enshrine the hijab in the Iranian constitution and had the right to revoke the head covering.  He said that, in a 2014 national poll on keeping the hijab, 19% of the population completely agreed to retain it, 35% simply agreed, and 25% were neutral. 

Conceivably, my interlocutors might have been concerned with what or who might be reading their mail.  However, I’ve tried various Arab journalists outside of Iran, as well as a knowledgeable woman who lived many years in the Islamic Republic and still can’t get an answer.

Conclusion.  All we can do is wait for more news, amendment of the proposed legislation, another trip to Iran, or, Insha’Allah, someone talks candidly to me.  I guarantee no names or identifying information will be used.

Iran is a progressive, well-educated country, whose people are astonishingly concerned with the well-being of their fellow man. I would hope that the current contretemps over the hijab will simply disappear.

J. Michael Springmann is an attorney, author, political commentator, and former diplomat, with postings to Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. He previously authored, Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider’s View, recounting how the U.S. created and used Islamic Terrorism. Additionally, he penned Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos?  Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, an analysis of the alien wave sweeping the Continent. He currently practices law in the Washington D.C. Area.  He is a frequent commentator on Arab, Iranian, and Russian news programs.

Blacklisted by US news media, he is also on the Ukraine’s “Enemies List”, having questioned, inter alia, the country’s refusal to honor the Minsk Accords and for stating that its government is Nazified.