Iranian politicians to debate over hijab law behind closed doors

Iranian MPs have voted to debate controversial hijab law in Iran behind closed doors and re will t be any public say in matter, according to emerging reports. For several months w, Iran has witnessed women uprising against Islamic Republic's strict moral dress code that imposes strict punishments on women who refuse to wear a hescarf.

draft-- Hijab and Chastity Bill--was approved for a three to five-year trial and was brought in response to mass protests that were triggered following death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in Iran's moral police's custody. Amini was detained with coercion by morality police for t wearing hijab properly. 

MPs evoked Article 85 of Iranian constitution

Iran's politicians will w be able to change legislation after trial, making it a permanent law. y evoked Article 85 of Iranian constitution that allows review of bill without public debate, reports suggest. voting happened during open session of parliament. As many as 175 members voted in favour of move, meanwhile 49 voted against it. Iranian MP Gholamreza uri-Qezeljeh was reported warning that such a move comes with risks and dangers of its own, while ar MP Mohamm Rashidi argued that vote was conducted to see how law can be implemented "experimentally."

bill mainly focuses on criminalising  hijab-related breaches. It would specifically target hijab violators and lists out a range of proposals to punish women. It includes long prison time for defiant women who refuse to here to rule of wearing a hescarf. bill also imposes new penalties for prominent public figures and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an attempt to surveil women who violate country's strict moral dress code. 

Scores of Iranian women across dozens of professions who appeared in public without hijab in defiance of controversial rule were arrested and summoned by authorities, have gone missing, or prosecuted, with criminal courts ruling brutal sentences against defendants for defying dress code and exercising ir individual rights and freedom. 

"It is a clear response to protests from September of last fall,” Sanam Vakil, Director of Middle East and rth Africa program at Chatham House think-tank in London said about bill. He ded that it is an attempt by leers to “reassert authority over veiling and requirements expected of women.”