A bill on the wearing of the veil in Iran has sparked a lively debate within power, where conservatives are mobilizing against the refusal of a growing number of women to cover their heads.
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian law has required all women to wear a hijab covering their head and neck in public places.
However, more and more Iranian women are appearing bareheaded in the streets, a trend which has increased with the protest movement sparked by the death in custody in September of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested for violating the strict dress code. .
Majority in power and in Parliament, the Conservatives passionately defend the obligation of the veil and believe that its disappearance would launch a process that would profoundly change “social norms”.
In this context, the judiciary and the government in May proposed a bill called “Support for the culture of hijab and chastity” in order to “protect society” and “strengthen family life”.
This text suggests strengthening the sanctions, in particular financial, against “any person removing their veil in public places or on the Internet”. But without going until she can be imprisoned.
“This bill proposes to reclassify the removal of the hijab from a felony to a misdemeanor, similar to a traffic violation, but with heavier fines,” sociologist Abbas Abdi told AFP.
Because, since the death of Mahsa Amini, society “no longer accepts that we imprison a woman because she does not wear the veil”, he believes.
In recent months, the authorities have already taken a series of initiatives, ranging from the closure of businesses, in particular restaurants, to the installation of cameras in the streets to track down those who defy the ban.
In recent days, at least three officials have been sacked or arrested for failing to prevent access to historic sites for unveiled women.
“Not deterrent enough”
The bill, the text of which has been published in government-affiliated media, provides that offenders will first receive a warning text message from the police.
In the event of a repeat offense, they risk a fine of 500,000 to six million tomans (about $14 to $173 Canadian dollars), a significant sum for many Iranians. To this can be added the deprivation of social rights and the confiscation of the car for ten days for female drivers.
The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeï, defended the balance of the text, stressing the need not to polarize society while saying that he understood the “concerns of believers” hit by the non-respect of the wearing of the veil.
While waiting to be examined by Parliament, the bill arouses the anger of ultra-conservatives, very active in the current Parliament, for whom it is “not dissuasive enough”.
The newspaper Kayhan thus judged that he was going to encourage “the expansion of a repugnant phenomenon” by “removing legal barriers” for women who do not wear a veil.
The promoters of the law “do not know that the enemy” seeks, by removing the veil, to “destroy the family institution and, ultimatelyto attack the foundations of the Islamic system”, warns this daily.
For some ultraconservatives, these calls for “social disobedience” are launched by social networks and foreign media, in particular television channels broadcast in Persian.
Within power, “there is no consensus on the hijab” between those who favor the path of repression and those who “think that other means should be tried”, observes Mr. Abdi.
In this context, “the bill does not satisfy either the supporters of compulsory hijab or, of course, the supporters of the freedom to cover up or not”, according to him.
Some observers draw a parallel with a law passed in the 1990s to prohibit the use of satellite dishes. “It was only implemented for a while before it was dropped,” notes Abdi.