Iran prepares to treat women who violate hijab law

By Alimat Aliyeva

The Iranian authorities have announced their intention to open special clinics to assist women who, in violation of current regulations, appear in public without wearing the hijab, Azernews reports.

These "Hijab Removal Clinics" will offer women "scientific and medical treatment assistance," according to Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Department of Women and Family Affairs at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices, an agency directly reporting to the country’s spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei. According to Darestani, the clinics will primarily serve teenagers and young women. She assured that participation in these clinics will be voluntary.

However, many women's rights activists and human rights advocates have already expressed concern. "It won't be a clinic. It will be a prison," a young woman, speaking anonymously, told The Guardian. "We are struggling to make ends meet, dealing with power outages, and yet the state is only concerned with pieces of cloth."

Observers note that the announcement of these clinics comes shortly after an incident in which a student from Tehran University, in protest against harassment over improper hijab wear, stripped down to her underwear in public. According to local media, she was initially arrested and later placed in a psychiatric clinic.