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 country’s strict hijab laws. According to Mehri Talebi Darestani, he of Women and Family Department at Tehran Hequarters for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal.” This effort, officials claim, is meant to dress “issue” of unveiled women as part of Iran’s broer social regulations.

announcement has quickly drawn backlash from women’s rights activists and dissidents who see 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 proposed clinic “shameful.” She ded, “ idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to ruling ideology.”

A prison masquering as a clinic? 

According to a report from 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 ded, “If re was a time for all of us to come back to streets, it’s now, or y’ll lock us all up.”

plan for this clinic comes on heels of recent reports of harsh enforcement against those who defy Iran’s hijab laws. Iranian media recently covered 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 or rights organizations have accused Iranian authorities of using forced medication, violence, and or abusive measures on protesters and dissidents sent to state-run psychiatric facilities.

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