Forced hijab, the main tool of misogynist rulers to suppress women in Iran

For thousands of years in Iran, women’s clothing and covering were a matter of personal choice, a social issue that was never deemed a privilege. The past century, however, saw Iranian dictators and, specifically, the current regime, transforming this issue into leverage for oppressing women through imposing the forced hijab.

Enforcing the mandatory veil for women is another excuse for the regime to use violence and coercion against the people of Iran.

Contrary to all teachings of Islam, the mullahs’ misogynous dictatorship has institutionalised the compulsory veil for women in the country’s Constitution and other legal codes. A network of 26 agencies and ministers are in charge of enforcing the veil for Iranian women.

 Suppression of women under the pretext of failure to observe the forced hijab is one of the Iranian regime’s most effective tools to create an atmosphere of repression in society and silence any voice of dissent. In recent years, a considerable number of women have been imprisoned in Evin and Qarchak prisons and handed down heavy sentences for their opposition to forced hijab.

Many female athletes have been expelled from the national team or their professional sports or forced to leave the country for refusing to observe the forced hijab.

The Office of Cultural Studies of the Research Centre of Majlis (the parliament) published a special report on July 28, 2018, stipulating that only 35 per cent of Iranian women value the forced hijab (Chador), and nearly 70 per cent of women either do not believe in it or are among “the improperly veiled” and protest the compulsory veil in Iran.