Women flouting hijab deserve death penalty, ex-Guards commander says
A former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has called for the execution of women who reject the country’s mandatory hijab.
A former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has called for the execution of women who reject the country’s mandatory hijab.
“The sentence for someone who does not accept the hijab is execution,” Hassan Hassannia said. “If the martyrs were here, they would flay the skin off those who, with the slogan ‘woman, life, freedom,’ stripped themselves naked,” he added, referring to the slogan chanted during Iran’s nationwide 2022 protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini.
He said women who refuse to wear the hijab “will not be corrected by dialogue,” urging that they be dealt with using “the harshest punishment.”
Hassannia also criticized Iranian officials who question the Islamic Republic’s hijab mandate, saying, “You became president, minister and governor and swore on the Quran to uphold the constitution; you are wrong when you say you do not accept the hijab.”
His comments come as Iran’s hardline daily Kayhan, run by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative, blamed government bodies for lax enforcement of hijab rules and called for stronger promotion of compulsory veiling in a commentary published last week.
Earlier in the week government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani, had said that “hijab cannot be restored to society by force” and that social values should be strengthened through cultural engagement rather than coercion.
Defiance of Iran’s mandatory hijab laws has endured since the 2022 protests, as unveiled women continue to appear in public across major cities despite recent recurring crackdowns on businesses accused of serving women without headscarves.
