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Iran’s Regime Doubles Down with Harsher Hijab Punishments

An Iranian policewoman (L) warns a woman about her clothing and hair during a crackdown to enforce Islamic dress code in Tehran, Iran (Getty Images)
An Iranian policewoman (L) warns a woman about her clothing and hair during a crackdown to enforce Islamic dress code in Tehran, Iran (Getty Images)

In Tehran, the office of the Islamic Republic's prosecutor-general issued a series of new orders Tuesday to the country's police to act "decisively" against women who fail to comply with the regime's radical Islamic hijab rules. The report comes as the Islamic regime continues to enact brutal crackdowns, arrests, and executions of citizens protesting over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was beaten and died at the hands of the Islamic morality police over her improper hijab.

According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), Deputy Prosecutor-General Abdolsamad Khorramabadi stated that police will be required to arrest and hand over women who remove their headscarves in public to the judiciary.

Khorramabadi outlined detailed penalties, saying those who removed their headscarves could face detention from 10 days to two months. Other measures are at the disposal of judges, including bans on work, political activity, banishment, and confiscation of vehicles.

The new penalties announced by the Islamic judiciary come despite protests unrelenting throughout the country, calling for the regime's complete overthrow. Despite facing the regime's brutally repressive measures in recent months, an increasing number of women in Iran have been going about their daily lives without their hijabs, with some twirling and burning them at protests.

According to reports, the new laws will go further than previous measures, acting against individuals who are "encouraging" lax hijab, giving them up to 10 years in prison for moral "corruption."

The announcement by Khorramabadi also came less than a week after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on supporters of the regime and members of the Islamic government to close ranks and crack down on those who oppose the regime.

Following the death of Mahsa Amini and the nationwide protests in Iran, Khamenei, and Iran President Ebrahim Raisi have accused Western governments and Israel of inciting the protests to overthrow the Islamic Republic. In response to the protests, Islamic security forces have killed at least 519 people, according to human rights advocacy groups, with several thousand estimated to have been put behind bars and are awaiting potential execution, according to the Human Rights Activists New Agency.

The Islamic judiciary has been busy since September, issuing deadly sentences in the protesters' trials, accusing them of "spreading corruption on earth" and having support from "foreign services." Authorities in Tehran have even targeted prominent figures, including actors, writers, journalists, and athletes, for siding with the protesters, arresting them, and imposing severe restrictions and bans on their families.

Family members and friends of former officials in the Islamic government, like Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of the late Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been sentenced to five years in jail for speaking out against the regime's actions.

In late November 2022, Iranian authorities arrested Khamenei’s niece after recording a video describing the authorities led by her uncle as a "murderous and child-killing regime."

According to reports, her brother, Khamenei's nephew, was arrested in November after going to the office of the prosecutor following a summons.

With the Islamic Republic facing outrage and economic sanctions from the international community for its brutal repression, the regime has vowed to target outside groups, individuals, actors, writers, and journalists speaking against the government.

The most recent instance came with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian-backed terrorist proxy Hezbollah, vowing to get revenge against the French-satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo for making fun of Khamenei and the regime.

Related Story: Islamic Republic Officials Set to Freeze Bank Accounts of Women Refusing to Wear a Hijab

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