Iran vows to prosecute women, close businesses that shun hijab

By Arsalan Shahla

Iranian women will be prosecuted and businesses could risk being shut for failing to observe the country’s hijab rules, Iran’s police chief said, escalating the regime’s crackdown on dissent against mandatory head scarves.

Under the new law, Iranian women who refuse to wear head coverings in public places or inside their cars would face court trials and have their vehicles impounded, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing Brigadier-General Ahmadreza Radan.

The move follows the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, in September who was arrested by the country’s so-called morality police for allegedly wearing improper clothes. Her death triggered the biggest wave of protests against the country’s clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The new measures will also allow the police to shut any business whose employees fail to abide by compulsory hijab requirements, the report said. The police plan to use “smart cameras and equipment” to identify and send warnings to women in violation of the dress code, the police said in a separate statement on Saturday.

The Shargh daily newspaper reported on Monday that more than 100 stores and businesses were closed over the last month for failing to comply with Iran’s Islamic dress code.

Authorities hanged four people in December and January in connection with protests. Rights groups say more than 400 people died in the regime’s crackdown on protesters and thousands more were arrested.