Authorities have declared July 12 as “Hijab and Purity Day” – meaning events will be held to defend the rules that force women to wear the hijab. While women in Iran protest the day by removing their headscarves, men show solidarity with them. Women’s rights are severely restricted in Iran, and wearing the headscarf is compulsory in public for all women there – with those who don’t wear a hijab or have some of their hair exposed while wearing a hijab facing penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment. The authorities’ decision to declare Tuesday “Hijab and Chastity Day” comes as the Islamic Republic mounts an operation to force women to wear the hijab – labeling women, many of them young, who break the rules as “bad hijab”. . The so-called “morality police” are arresting women in the crackdown – with some officials reportedly asking public transport workers, as well as staff in government offices, and banks to ignore so-called “bad hijab” women. While medical centers and universities in some Iranian cities are monitored by “morality police” to ensure women keep their heads covered. Allan Hogarth, of Amnesty International, a leading global human rights organisation, told the Independent: “Iran has a long and appalling record of persecuting women who are simply exercising their right to choose what they wear. “The brave women who are taking a stand against these sexist laws today know the risks they are taking. Three young Iranian women. Monireh, Yasaman and Mojgan are currently serving more than 30 years in prison simply for handing out flowers to female passengers on a metro train in Tehran while exposed. “The women were filmed, sharing their hopes for a future where all women in Iran have the freedom to choose what they wear.” Mr Hogarth warned days after the video “went viral” online, the women were “charged with bogus offences, including ‘inciting prostitution’ because they chose not to wear veils”. He added: “This kind of persecution violates basic human rights and the moral police are likely to find that this kind of authoritarianism does not match the outlook of much of Iran’s youth.” While Dima Dabbous, of Equality Now, a global NGO, argued that women should be allowed to dress however they want instead of being “treated by the state as criminals for the simple act of appearing in public with their hair uncovered”. He added: “This is a fundamental violation of their human rights – including their right to freedom of expression, belief and equality – and is an extreme form of gender discrimination. “Tehran’s imam, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, said a woman who defies the government’s mandatory hijab laws is committing a sin comparable to theft or embezzlement. This is completely untrue, it is not the word of God, nowhere in the Koran or in the religious scriptures does it say this.” Ms Dabbous warned that the country’s “increasingly hard-line crackdown on women wearing the hijab” is “another example of the rise of religious extremism in the region” which sees religion being “used as a tool of oppression to subjugate the of women and girls”. A rally is to be held at Azadi Stadium, a football stadium in the Iranian capital Tehran, with the express aim of urging women to keep their heads covered. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and women’s rights activist, tweeted: “Iranian women will shake the clerical regime by removing their hijabs and taking to the streets across Iran to say #No2Hijab. This is called the women’s revolution. In Iran #WalkingUnveiled is a crime. Iranian men will join us.” It comes after President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric backed by Iran’s ultra-conservative upper echelons, referred to those defying the headscarf revolt as “organised promotion of moral corruption in Islamic society”. However, hijab rules are not uniformly enforced across Iran, with some areas of the country having stricter rules than others. Late last month, the country’s state media revealed that authorities had arrested five people accused of planning a skateboarding event in Shiraz – a city in southern Iran. Teenage girls and boy skaters gathered for the event on June 23, with Iranian police arresting some of the girls for not wearing their headscarves.
