Iran Women’s Rights: Crackdown on Dress Code Sparks Protests and International Outrage

The headscarf requirement for women in Iran is more strictly enforced. Videos have been posted on social media in recent days showing police cracking down on women who do not adhere to the dress code.

Last week, the Iranian police announced that they will take tougher action against women who don’t have a headscarf on the street. Op pictures for example, it shows a woman being roughly dragged into a van. Iran expert Peyman Jafari says these images are disturbing.

In the News NOS Radio 1 he said this morning that the tougher approach is causing unrest in Iran at all levels of society. “Even among conservatives and religious people there are concerns about the time. They believe that the country should not cause these problems because it is against Israel. “

In September 2022, mass protests erupted in the country after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. According to the moral police, she did not dress properly and was arrested with great force. She fell into a coma and died in hospital.

Massive protests followed. Iranians wanted freedom and to leave the regime. The wave of protests was supported far outside the country. Women around the world cut a piece of hair and shared videos of it online. Headscarves ended up on funeral pyres.

The protests continued for months and the regime collapsed. More than 500 protestors were killed and thousands of people went to prison. The NOS reported about this before the forced confessions in torture in these prisons. Several Iranians were hanged for participating in the protests.

Politically, according to Jafari, nothing was achieved because the protests were suppressed, but change was visible in the streets. “There, Iranians got the courage not to wear a headscarf or wear it the way they want. “

Jafari says that this change can be seen mostly in the big cities. “The government wants to take back that space they got. They want to show who is boss from time to time. Especially when the summer season starts, they know that women will take a little more room. They want to scare them.

But, according to Jafari, the change from the population is inevitable. “More and more people are considering wearing a headscarf as a freedom of choice and that change cannot be stopped.”

The Iranian expert does not expect any new demonstrations in the short term. He sees people giving up the fight. “They just leave.” It refers to the emigration of the majority of young people, students and people with higher education. “So people have no hope for change, while there is great dissatisfaction. “