2024 and Iranian women's rights: Has anything changed?
In 2024, Iran passed laws on hijab that prescribed the death penalty or 15 years in jail for non-compliance. The Islamic nation even set up clinics to "treat" women against hijab.
In December 2024, Iran passed a set of new laws to promote a "culture of chastity and hijab". If any of the Iranian women would go against these laws, they would either be sentenced to death or sent to jail for 15 years. These severe penalties will apply to those who will be caught “promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling, or improper dressing”. As per Article 37 of the new law, those who promote "bad dressing" to foreign entities, including international media, would either face 10 years in prison or over $15,000 fine.
If you are surprised reading this, hold your breath.
Also read | Sexual violence against women in 2024: From Kolkata to Gisele Pelicot rape cases, a year of horrors
Iran opened a "hijab removal treatment clinic" in November 2024, and the whole and sole purpose of the clinic is to "treat" women who are not ready to accept the hijab for themselves.
All this to keep a woman under the veil forcefully? Yes. So nothing changed even more than a year after Mahsa Amini's case? Sadly not.
When a country like Iran, which aspires to be a Khalifa (leader) for Islamic nations and Muslims across the globe, does such things and cites the religion in its defence, it does show a lot of discrepancies.
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It does make a Muslim woman think: has she missed understanding the religion? When something that was supposed to be entirely her decision became something that put her life at stake?
Why was "bad dressing" in front of international media given so much importance in these laws? Is it really about religion or Iran's global image as a political power and its aspiring goals in West Asia for which women are being used? One must think.
Let's talk about the backfire of Iran's "mandatory" laws.
As per psychology's Reactance Theory, the human brain tends to resist and do the opposite of what it is forced to do when something unpleasant and unwanted is imposed on it. Well, that's exactly what is being seen in Iran, where as the country is raising the strict bar of its laws on hijab, the more rebels it is seeing.
Afghanistan or Iran per se made this year a high time to sit back and think why a woman's body is every nation's political power tool.
Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.
