Iran Introduces ‘Treatment’ Clinic for Women Rejecting Imposition of Hijab

In a move sparking outrage among women and human rights activists, Iran has announced plans to open a “hijab removal treatment clinic” aimed at women who refuse to comply with the country’s strict hijab laws. According to Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal.” This effort, officials claim, is meant to address the “issue” of unveiled women as part of Iran’s broader social regulations.

The announcement has quickly drawn backlash from women’s rights activists and dissidents who see the clinic as a disturbing form of social control. UK-based Iranian journalist Sima Sabet, who has been a target of an alleged Iranian assassination attempt, called the proposed clinic “shameful.” She added, “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology.”

A prison masquerading as a clinic? 

According to a report from The Guardian, a young woman inside Iran, who requested to remain anonymous, said, “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison. We are struggling to make ends meet and have power outages, but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about.” She added, “If there was a time for all of us to come back to the streets, it’s now, or they’ll lock us all up.”

The plan for this clinic comes on the heels of recent reports of harsh enforcement against those who defy Iran’s hijab laws. Iranian media recently covered the arrest of a university student who stripped to her underwear in protest after allegedly being assaulted by campus security guards for hijab violations. She was subsequently sent to a psychiatric hospital. Amnesty International and other rights organizations have accused Iranian authorities of using forced medication, violence, and other abusive measures on protesters and dissidents sent to state-run psychiatric facilities.

Critics argue that these new steps signal an intensification of efforts to suppress women’s protests, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in police custody after being arrested for alleged hijab violations.