The new Hijab plan punishes women who defy the veil by heavy fines, nulling passports, and driver’s licenses, and ban on internet use
In a press conference with the state media, mullah Hossein Jalali presented the details of a new Hijab Plan to be proposed to the mullahs’ parliament for adoption.
Jalali said the new plan would be implemented through an intelligent system and not entail physical confrontation with women who do not observe the veil. Instead, it includes financial punishments ranging from half a million to three billion tomans, cancellation of driver’s licenses and passports, ban on Internet use, etc.
At a news conference on March 26, 2023, the member of the mullahs’ parliament from Rafsanjan and Anar said they had finalized the bill in 300 meetings with the National Cultural and Security Council. He claimed that the situation of the Hijab would be better than in the past.
According to mullah Jalali, the clerical regime’s agencies in charge of enforcing the mandatory Hijab would monitor seven groups of places: inside the vehicles, inside public places and restaurants, government offices and departments, educational centers and universities, airports and terminals, the cyberspace, celebrities, and in the streets and public thoroughfares.
He claimed that according to the new plan, confrontations with women would be “intelligent,” and there would be “no physical confrontations.” There will be fines issued for those who breach the Hijab rules, ranging from 500,000 Tomans to 3 billion Tomans.
Revoking driver’s licenses and passports and banning Internet use are also among the punishments for women who do not observe the mandatory Hijab rules. They will also see those individuals with websites, social media channels, or many followers and members could not use the Internet.
Hossein Jalali said the government should propose the bill within a couple of weeks to be adopted by the parliament. “We have improved the executive guarantees, and, God willing, it will be implemented.”
The clerical regime has devised a new Hijab plan with heavy financial punishments while more than 80 percent of the Iranian populace live under the poverty line and fetch their food from garbage bins.
Notably, the bill to prevent violence against women has not been adopted after 11 years.
The compulsory veil is one of the pillars of the mullahs’ dictatorial rule. The clerical regime made wearing the veil mandatory less than one month after seizing power. The regime suppresses society and imposes repressive rules by cracking down on women. Undermining the mandatory Hijab undermines the regime’s Islamic identity and raison d’etre.
Iranian women, however, have defied the regime’s coercion in any way they could over the past 44 years. They realize there is no coercion in Islam and that wearing the Hijab is a free choice for women, not a compulsory obligation.
There is no doubt that the so-called “alternative punishment” plan will also backfire against the regime.
