Iranian women resisting wearing the hijab they are going to be handled at a specialised psychological well being clinic in Tehran.
The middle, referred to as the Hijab Removal Clinic, is from the Islamic Republic last attempt to repress female dissent that has swept the nation for the reason that “Woman, Life, Freedom” rebellion in 2022.
Mehri Talebi Darestani, who will handle the middle, mentioned that “will probably be supposed for the scientific and psychological therapy of hijab removing, particularly for the era of adolescents, younger adults and girls looking for a social and Islamic identification” .
He mentioned the undertaking centered on selling “dignity, modesty, chastity and hijab” and mentioned participation can be “non-compulsory.”
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” motion has impressed protests around the globe, together with by Iranian college students in Rome – Simona Granati/Corbis through Getty Images
A protest in assist of Iranian girls in Brussels in 2022 – Valeria Mongelli/AFP through Getty Images
The clinic will likely be overseen by Iran’s Union of Good and Prohibition of Evil Headquarters, the federal government physique accountable for imposing strict non secular requirements in society.
The division is underneath sanctions from the UK and different nations for human rights abuses and its brutal sanctions towards girls who don’t adhere to Iran’s Islamic costume codes.
It is led by Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, appointed straight by the supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Earlier this month, an undergraduate pupil on the Islamic Azad University of Tehran stripped down to her underwear to protest the requirement that girls put on the hijab. She was declared mentally ailing and brought to a psychiatric facility.
Ahou Daryaei, a 30-year-old pupil, walked throughout Tehran’s college campus in her underwear to protest towards the hijab. She was arrested and despatched to a psychological hospital – Microseb/Starface/Avalon
The anti-hijab motion gained traction after the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in custody of the morality police in Tehran in 2022. The 22-year-old was arrested for not carrying the hijab appropriately.
Tehran has since continued to crack down on girls with measures that embrace elevated covert surveillance, a stronger morality police presence and bans on veiled girls coming into public areas similar to purchasing malls and parks.
The UN has referred to as the repression “gender apartheid”.
In the wake of the 2022 protests, celebrities who posted pictures of themselves with out hijabs have been allowed by the courtroom to make weekly visits to psychiatric facilities.
Actresses similar to Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi and Leila Bolukat have been compelled to current psychological well being certificates. Other punishments included freezing banks and journey bans.
Systemic oppression of ladies
Last yr, 4 Iranian psychiatric associations issued a joint assertion condemning the federal government’s systematic labeling of ladies who don’t put on the hijab as mentally ailing.
“The prognosis of psychological problems is the purview of a psychiatrist, not a decide, simply because the prognosis of different illnesses is the purview of medical doctors, not judges,” the psychiatrists wrote in a letter to Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the decide boss. of Iran, printed by Iranian media in July.
In March, Amnesty International, the human rights group, criticized the Iranian authorities for this Systematic oppression of women through hijab laws.
“In a sinister try and weaken resistance to obligatory veiling within the wake of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ rebellion, Iranian authorities are terrorizing girls and women by subjecting them to fixed surveillance and policing, disrupting their day by day lives and inflicting them immense psychological misery” , mentioned Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director.
“Their draconian techniques vary from stopping girls from driving on the street and finishing up mass confiscation of their automobiles, to imposing inhumane floggings and jail sentences.”
