By Maryam Sinaiee

Woman’s car being impounded for “insufficient hijab”

Masoud Pezeshkian promised voters to stop hijab patrols and violence against women for violations, but the acting chief of police insists the same policies will continue under the new government.

Speaking at a security meeting in Qazvin Province Wednesday, Qasem Rezaei said implementation of the government’s hijab enforcement initiative, known as the Nour (Light) Plan, will continue irrespective of the change in administrations.

Under the Nour Plan, businesses face closure if they fail to ensure compliance with hijab regulations among their customers, and cars are impounded if passengers are unveiled.

At a press briefing in Rasht a few weeks before the recent snap elections, Rezaei claimed that the enforcement of the hijab plan was a popular demand. He labeled unveiling as a “soft threat” and a “sedition” used by the enemy, urging the parliament to urgently pass a bill imposing cash fines and other punishments on women for unveiling.

The bill, originally drawn up by the government of President Ebrahim Raisi in July 2023, is officially titled “Protection of Family Through Promotion of Hijab and Chastity Culture”.

The proposed bill secured parliamentary approval in September 2023 but has not yet come into effect due to formal objections raised by the Guardian Council which many believe stemmed from fears of a popular backlash rather than disagreement with its provisions.

Pezeshkian, who defended hijab enforcement in the early years of the Islamic Republic after 1979, has on several occasions in the past few years, including during recent election debates, denounced the deployment of the morality police and violence against women for “a few locks of hair”.

“We have been trying to institutionalize the hijab for forty years. Those behind the Nour Plan should tell us whether its implementation will lead us to light or there is darkness at the end,” Pezeshkian said in a campaign speech to a gathering of women on June 14.

Some women’s rights activists believe that Pezeshkian neither has the strong will to challenge hardliners over hijab and morality patrols, nor is invested with the power to do so as president.

Shirin Shams, a women’s rights activist, told Iran International that the police official’s statement was intended more for those within the ruling establishment, including Pezeshkian, who oppose the use of violence to enforce hijab. It was not aimed at Iranian society or the women who are determined to maintain the progress gained through hijab defiance.

Pointing out that it is unlikely the acting chief of the police was unaware of Masoud Pezeshkian’s promise to end the implementation of the hijab enforcement plan, prominent journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi criticized Rezaei for undermining Pezeshkian a few days ahead of his inauguration.

“The bigger question is why this police official did not say these things when Mr. Pezeshkian was trying to convince the people [who did not want to vote] to go to the ballot boxes … and is underscoring the powerlessness of the president about the matter now that [the election] is over?” Zeidabadi asked in a social media post.

Citizen reporters say enforcement of hijab was somehow relaxed after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May and during the following weeks when the but has once again picked up after the presidential elections.

The patrols had also largely vanished from the streets following the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini at the age of 22 in the custody of the morality police in September 2022. Her death sparked extensive protests that persisted for several months. Once the protests were repressed, the enforcement returned in 2023.

There has been a significant increase in the number of unveiled women, even in many traditionally conservative towns and cities, since Amini’s death.

Pezeshkian, who was a lawmaker at the time, strongly condemned the police violence against Amini one day after her death, and the crackdown on protesters in a fiery speech in the parliament.