By Iran has launched a major new crackdown on women who defy the country’s strict dress code, deploying a large number of police officers to enforce laws that require women to wear headscarves in public.
The campaign, which began last month amidst heightened military tensions between Iran and Israel, has been condemned by human rights advocates as a “war on women.”
Amnesty International released a statement this week, stating that “security forces across the country have intensified their violent enforcement of compulsory veiling.”
The operation, named “Noor” (Light), is aimed at enforcing Iran’s mandatory hijab law, which requires women to cover their heads and the shape of their bodies.
The crackdown marks the most serious effort by the Iranian regime to reassert its authority following the women-led protests in 2022 and 2023 that challenged the mandatory hijab law.
The protests, known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, who died in a hospital three days after being detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to the headscarf law.
Although the demonstrations were eventually crushed, many women and girls across the country have continued to defy the dress code, appearing in public with their hair uncovered.
Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, warned that the police operation could have “tragic consequences.”
“Amid increasing dissent at home and international attention focused on regional tensions, the Islamic Republic is grabbing the opportunity to intensify its campaign of repression against dissent,” Ghaemi said in a statement.
 “Women and girls in Iran are already subjected to severe discrimination, yet these actions significantly increase the threat of unchecked state violence against them.”
The crackdown was announced by Tehran Police Chief Abbasali Mohammadian on state TV on April 13, coinciding with Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel.
“Starting today, police in Tehran and other cities will carry out measures against those who violate the hijab law,” the police chief said.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has expressed concern over the crackdown, with spokesman Jeremy Laurence stating that “the authorities, whether they be plainclothes police or policemen in uniform, are increasingly enforcing the hijab bill.”
Laurence also reported that there have been widespread arrests and harassment of women and girls, many between the ages of 15 and 17, and that hundreds of businesses and restaurants have been shut down by authorities for allegedly failing to enforce the hijab law.
In March, a U.N. fact-finding mission held Iran responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death and found that Iran committed crimes against humanity in its violent repression of the subsequent protests.
Iran has denied responsibility for Amini’s death and rejected accusations from human rights organizations, witnesses, and foreign governments that it crushed peaceful protests with violence.
The intensified crackdown on women defying the strict dress code in Iran has drawn international condemnation and raised concerns about the safety and rights of women and girls in the country.
Credit: NBCNews.com
