Iran to start clinic to provide 'scientific treatment' to women who don't wear hijab

 

 

Tehran: Iran says it will provide medical facilities for women who do not comply with the country's mandatory hijab regulations. Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Affairs Department at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Vice and Prevention Headquarters, said the clinic will provide scientific and psychological treatment for removing the hijab. The announcement comes after a university student who was arrested for disrobing and protesting on campus after being harassed by security guards for violating hijab was transferred to a mental hospital.

The announcement came from a department under the direct authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, women's organizations came forward against the decision. No doubt this is a prison, not a clinic. People are struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile what concerns this country is a rag. If there was ever a time for us all to hit the streets, it would be now. Or they will lock us all up - the Iranian woman, who did not want to be named, told The Guardian.

Human rights organizations including Amnesty International came out against the Iranian government's decision. Concerns were raised about the use of forced medication and torture of protesters and dissidents. The idea of setting up clinics to treat women who do not wear the hijab is primitive. Sima Sabet, an Iranian journalist based in the UK, said people were being separated from society for not conforming to the regime's ideology. Incidents of arrests, disappearances and closures of business establishments related to hijab violations are also reported to be on the rise.

A 25-year-old Roshanak Molay Alisha was reportedly arrested after a confrontation with a man who harassed her over her hijab. The woman's whereabouts have not yet been released. In September 2022, the hijab movement reached its peak in Iran with the death of Mahsa Amini. Amini was killed in custody after being detained for violating hijab laws. Then there were protests across the country.