Iranian politicians to debate over hijab law behind closed doors

Iranian MPs have voted to debate the controversial hijab law in Iran behind closed doors and there will not be any public say in the matter, according to the emerging reports. For several months now, Iran has witnessed women uprising against the Islamic Republic's strict moral dress code that imposes strict punishments on women who refuse to wear a headscarf.

The draft-- Hijab and Chastity Bill--was approved for a three to five-year trial and was brought in response to the mass protests that were triggered following the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in Iran's moral police's custody. Amini was detained with coercion by the morality police for not wearing the hijab properly. 

MPs evoked Article 85 of Iranian constitution

Iran's politicians will now be able to change the legislation after the trial, making it a permanent law. They evoked Article 85 of the Iranian constitution that allows review of the bill without public debate, reports suggest. The voting happened during the open session of parliament. As many as 175 members voted in favour of the move, meanwhile 49 voted against it. Iranian MP Gholamreza Nouri-Qezeljeh was reported warning that such a move comes with risks and dangers of its own, while another MP Mohammad Rashidi argued that the vote was conducted to see how the law can be implemented "experimentally."

The bill mainly focuses on criminalising the hijab-related breaches. It would specifically target hijab violators and lists out a range of proposals to punish the women. It includes long prison time for defiant women who refuse to adhere to the rule of wearing a headscarf. The bill also imposes new penalties for prominent public figures and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an attempt to surveil women who violate the country's strict moral dress code. 

Scores of Iranian women across dozens of professions who appeared in public without the hijab in defiance of the controversial rule were arrested and summoned by the authorities, have gone missing, or prosecuted, with criminal courts ruling brutal sentences against the defendants for defying the dress code and exercising their individual rights and freedom. 

"It is a clear response to the protests from September of last fall,” Sanam Vakil, Director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House think-tank in London said about the bill. He added that it is an attempt by the leaders to “reassert authority over veiling and the requirements expected of women.”