Hijab Police Remains Holy Grail For Iran's Regime
While updates about Iran’s contentious new hijab bill are trickling out, a newspaper in Tehran says the so-called morality police is still the regime’s preferred strategy.
While updates about Iran’s contentious new hijab bill are trickling out, a newspaper in Tehran says the so-called morality police is still the regime’s preferred strategy.
Farhikhtegan newspaper, affiliated with Ali Akbar Velayati, a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in an article published Saturday that a parliamentary committee in charge of the bill has eliminated the only possible benefit of the bill aimed at reducing police confrontations with people.
The main idea of the bill was to introduce a new way for hijab enforcement in the streets that would not lead to violent confrontation between police and people, reminiscent of the death of Mahsa Amini that ignited nationwide protests last September, shaking the foundations of the clerical regime. It put the emphasis on non-policing measures, rather than hijab patrols who confront the people on the streets.
The bill, which was sent to the Islamic Consultative Assembly by the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, initially was comprised of only 15 articles. Now undergoing its final deliberations, it has become more unwieldy with 70 articles while the parliament has decided to discuss it without an open session in fear of further backlash.
According to lawmaker Ahmad Naderi, a member of the parliament's presidium, a joint committee will make “the decision on the bill's passage into law discreetly and without being presented in the open session of the parliament.”
“The bill, fraught with suspicions and flaws both from a legal and societal perspective, has become a topic of national discussion,” said Farhikhtegan daily. “Now even more alarming news is being heard,” added the paper, explaining that lawmaker Amirhossein Bankipour has made the hijab patrols by police as the only viable option to crush the civil disobedience movement that is translated into society as women unveiling in public. “This means going back to square one,” said the article.
The uprising last September has made it increasingly difficult for the clerical regime to enforce the mandatory Islamic dress code. Since the beginning of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, tens of thousands of girls and women have shed their compulsory hijab. The regime seeks to criminalize hijab defiance, but no branch of the government wants to be solely responsible for complications and the risk of social backlash.
According to Farhikhtegan newspaper, the bill has evolved to the point where instead of rectifying the existing issues, its new addendums will further exacerbate the situation.
In recent weeks, the regime has intensified measures to intimidate people against defying hijab such as shutting down restaurants, cafes, small businesses and even online shops. The regime has also summoned students and has moved to make university lectures online in fear of renewed protests. However, the common belief is still the same: Regime cannot retain control of women’s dress code on streets.
Veteran hardliner lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani said that to keep its head above water, the regime must act promptly. “Every day, the situation worsens, thus requiring preventive actions; otherwise, we risk entering irrecoverable circumstances. Due to inaction, defiance against hijab has deteriorated further, and if we don't stop its progress, it will sweep us away,” he said, justifying the haste and secrecy in finalizing the hijab bill.
Responding to Haji-Deligani, political analyst Ali-Hossein Ghazizadeh said, “The regime is rushing to secretly approve the bill. This bill represents the last arrow in the quiver of the regime to confront the women who have come to make history. Mark my word! This bill does not work; the flood that has been unleashed will sweep you all away,” he said in a tweet.
Reformist activist Saeed Shariati quipped on a television debate earlier in the week that it is not "religious minorities" but the "irreligious majority" who do not adhere to the regime's interpretation of Islamic laws.
Many moderates have signaled their unwillingness to register as candidates, given their fear that hardliners using their political power will disqualify them, similar to what took place in 2020 and 2021.
However, a former speaker of the Parliament who is a close relative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei says reformists will take part in the election despite playing coy.
Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel told Young Journalist Club conservative website that "Some reformists are serious about what they say, but some are more realistic. They will act coquettishly, but they will take part in the elections anyway."
Whether he is right in his prediction, many Iranians see the elections as a ruse and will not go to vote for any regime faction. They have lost hope that the Islamic Republic can improve and solve their multiple grievances.
This is why Haddad-Adel called on Iranians to take part in the elections as a high turnout will lend the Islamic Republic authority and political leverage.
Also speaking to the press this week, former lawmaker Tayebeh Siavashi, a reformist political figure, said: "The Islamic Republic's existence depends on the people's participation in the elections. If the people refuse, the Islamic Republic will no longer exist, or its survival will be endangered."
However, she added that the current Majles (parliament) has disappointed the people as legislation that lawmakers approve is far from what voters are demanding. As evidence she pointed to recent amendments the lawmakers passed to the Election Law, which were mainly meant to ensure their re-election.
She further argued that the changes in the election law are unlikely to lead to economic progress or strengthening democracy and creating welfare for the nation. Siavashi reiterated that the amended election law simply serves the interests of one particular political group, presumably the ultraconservatives in Paydari Party who hold the majority of seats in the Iranian parliament. This, she said, threatens the regime's legitimacy.
Siavashi added that what is currently taking place regarding the upcoming elections is mainly meant to ensure the ultraconservatives' control of the government even at the expense of considerably lowering the turnout.
She said some of the bills recently approved or being discussed at the parliament such as the laws about restricting Internet access or harsh regulations to impose the compulsory hijab on Iranian women have caused a lot of protests, but the government does not pay any attention to the people's demands or even their protests.
Contrary to the reluctance of moderates and reformists, some conservatives such as Asadollah Badamchian, the leader of the Islamic Coalition Party are keen to take part in the elections, although his traditional conservative party has little chance of winning more than a few seats in the parliament.
Badamchian has said his party will nominate 400 candidates for the 290 seats in the parliament. This will effectively mean that some 110 of his party members have to compete against other members, even if the party wins all the seats of the parliament.
However, not all the conservatives are determined to take part in the elections. Ahmad Alirezabeigi, a lawmaker close to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the press on Wednesday that the former President is not planning to take part in the March 2024 elections either as a candidate or as a kingmaker to promote other candidates.
In an unattributed commentary entitled “Critique To Foreign Minister’s Recent Remarks” , the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked news agency said Wednesday that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s tweet could provoke “unfortunate and irreparable events that may cause challenges to the old friendship between the peoples of Iran and Afghanistan.”
In his tweet on August 8, the Iranian foreign minister had accused the Taliban of committing a murderous act in August 1998 by attacking the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e Sharif during which they killed eight diplomats and a journalist. In fact, Iran’s Journalists Day on August 8 was designated to honor that journalist.
“It is very surprising that despite several meetings with Taliban officials and hosting them, the minister of foreign affairs is unaware of the sensitivities of these matters and the costs that such statements may impose on the government and people of Iran,” Fars wrote and claimed that a breakaway Taliban faction controlled by Pakistani intelligence had been responsible for the Mazar-e Sharif attack.
In another tweet seven hours later, apparently after he was chastised behind the scenes by the military, Amir-Abdollahian tried to somehow appease his critics, but this appears not to have satisfied the IRGC which the Taliban a potential ally against the United States.
In his second tweet the Iranian foreign minister claimed that he had been told by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, at their first meeting, that the Taliban condemned the 1998 attack on the Iranian consulate, when asked to clarify the Taliban’s position regarding the matter.
"There is no relationship between the Taliban of today and them. We condemn that inhuman act," Muttaqi said according to Amir-Abdollahian.
Fars also claimed on Thursday that according to sources close to the Taliban negotiating team in Doha, the US Special Representative Thomas West has repeatedly demanded that the Taliban act as a destabilizing force against the Islamic Republic of Iran in return for the release of part of Afghanistan’s blocked assets. Allegedly, the Taliban turned down the demand.
A London-based Afghan political activist told Iran International that the Islamic Republic of Iran has now realized its calculations were wrong and the Taliban would gradually increase their capabilities to act against Tehran, no matter how much the Islamic Republic compromises with them.
It had been obvious from the beginning that the religious ideological difference would not allow a stable relationship between the two and “the honeymoon period” would end sooner or later, he stressed.
Tehran was the third country after Pakistan and Russia that handed over Afghanistan’s embassy to the Taliban following the fall of President Ashraf Ghani in 2021 and has more or less maintained good relations with the Taliban despite several border skirmishes.
Tensions have been simmering between the Islamic Republic and the Taliban in the past few months over Iran’s share of the waters of Hirmand (Helmand in Afghanistan) which the Taliban are withholding by building dams.
In June Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran does not recognize the Taliban and called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan. He referred to the water dispute, stressing that any dispute had to be resolved through legal channels as stated in the 1973 water treaty between the two countries. Iran's foreign ministry also strongly refuted Taliban’s claim over lack of enough water due to draught to release Iran's share of the river’s waters.