Iranian women celebrating the strict Islamic dress code and waving Iranian flags in 2019. Iran has recently passed a new law that will place further restrictions on dress for both men and women. Vahid Salemi/Associated Press
Iran’s parliament has passed a new chastity law to be implemented next week, further tightening already strict dressing restrictions, according to reports.
The 74-article piece of legislation is set to take effect on December 13 and imposes penalties, primarily fines, for those who do not adhere to the country’s existing dress code, according to Iran Wire.
According to one human rights group in Iran the far reaching moves are “trying to turn citizens into spies” and are “tantamount to a broad regime of gender apartheid.”
The new chastity bill comes in the wake of previously passed stringent dressing requirements that inspired protests in 2022 that have continued to this day.
Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran for comment via email outside of business hours.
The new law, passed December 1 by Iran’s parliament, was approved by the Guardian Council, which assesses laws for their compliance with the Iranian constitution and Islamic law, and ultimately reports to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to CNN.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has voiced his discontent with the new law, but has little action he could take to prevent its implementation, according to the report.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Pezeshkian wrote: “In my opinion, the hijab law, which I have to implement, is very ambiguous. We should not do anything to disturb the consensus and empathy of the society. We have to talk and interact about this issue.”
The new law, which will be implemented on a three-year trial basis, will punish both men and women for dressing improperly.
Titled the “Protection of the Family through Promoting the Culture of Hijab and Chastity” law, a draft of the law submitted by the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to parliament in May of 2023, after which amendments were approved by parliament in September that year according to the Human Rights Watch.
The new bill defines improper dress as “clothing that exposes areas below the neck, above the ankles, or above the wrists, or clothing that ‘tempts’ others,” according to IranWire. It also stipulates that women cannot wear tight clothing, and men cannot expose anything below the shoulders and chest or above the knees.
The new law encourages citizens to report others who break the dress code to police.
If individuals break Iran’s dress rules, in accordance with the new chastity bill, they will have to pay a range of escalating fines under article 49, according to Iran Wire. For initial offenses, fines range from 20 million ($285) to 80 million ($1,140) tomans, while later violations incur fines between 80 million and 165 million ($2,350) tomans.
For individuals who are unable to pay the fines, alternative punishments could include impeding passport renewal, vehicle registration, obtaining country exit permits, or the ability to acquire or renew driver’s licenses. Punishment also could include not releasing impounded vehicles.
Some more severe punishments include possible prison sentences for multiple violations.
The law also applies to digital spaces, according to Human Rights Watch, and individuals promoting violating dress rules or mocking the fines could face punishment, and social media platforms will be required to monitor or remove such content. Influencers or public figures with followings online will face harsher penalties.
Under article 36, if an individual promotes nudity or immodesty in collaboration with foreign entities, they could face a prison sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
Those who are deemed to be “nude” would be immediately detained under the new law. This portion of the law follows a recent instance where an Iranian woman, Ahoo Daryei, removed her clothing in an anti-hijab protest at a university in Tehran and was subsequently arrested by Iranian authorities and taken to a hospital, according to BBC News.
The new law not only could punish individuals but also businesses that promote attire considered to be inappropriate, with owners facing fines of up to Grade 3, or the payment of two months’ business profit; Grade 2, or four months’ business profit; or a Grade 5 imprisonment sentence for a third offense that could be coupled with travel bans and advertising restrictions.
The new bill also includes a surveillance provision in which footage from various government ministries, including the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of Defense, as well as traffic monitoring cameras, will be used to identify individuals who broke the law and punish them accordingly.
What does this mean for Iran?
A ‘Woman, life, freedom’ protest in Canada in solidarity with the women in Iran, October 2022. Iran passed a new chastity law that will increase restrictions on dress rules. Justin Tang/Associated Press
Newsweek spoke to Bahar Ghandehari, the Director of Communications at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, about the ramifications of this new chastity law.
She said: “The scope of this bill is vast; its comprehensive measures and increased punishments reflect how desperate the Islamic Republic is to retain control over women and enforce mandatory hijab in the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom protests that erupted across Iran in 2022-2023.
“The degree of gender discrimination that this bill imposes in all spheres of life—social, political, economic, cultural, and financial—is tantamount to a broad regime of gender apartheid.
“In addition to its draconian punishments, it’s trying to turn citizens into spies—requiring everyone, from cab drivers to business owners to civil servants, to monitor and inform on women who are not complying with the forced hijab.
“It’s requiring students and teachers to be judged by their hijab compliance, not by their performance. It threatens punishments for cultural figures in the art and sport and other social influencers who challenge compliance. It is desperate in its scope, trying to turn citizen against citizen in the face of widespread societal rejection in Iran of mandatory hijab.”
Ghandehari also emphasized the danger in the fact that this bill has become a law and that it is not just “a local police initiative but rather national policy.”
She said, “Critically, its civilian monitoring requirements will encourage vigilante justice and violence. Its scope is so wide that the police cannot enforce it, hence, it is relying on citizen enforcement, giving a free hand to vigilantes to come forward under the pretext of encouraging law enforcement.
“It is a severe and blatant violation of women’s fundamental rights and it will promote increased violence against women,” she added.
Newsweek also spoke to Mohammad Nayyeri, a lecturer in law at Brunel University of London about Iran’s new chastity law.
He said the law is a “clear manifestation of gender apartheid in Iran” representing years of “scheming by religious, political, and security forces to devise a comprehensive master plan aimed at imposing a fundamentalist Islamic lifestyle and breaking the resistance of women, and Iranian people at large.”
He added that Iranian women have “suffered enormously” over the years while showing “extreme courage” and have found ways to “navigate or defy the draconian hijab and chastity laws.”
“In response, the new hijab law is designed to outmanoeuvre these acts of resistance and shrink spaces for personal freedoms even further by effectively putting the Iranian regime on a war footing,” he said.
He added: “But beyond the issue of hijab, the law is an attempt by the totalitarian regime, a police state, to tighten its grip on society, targeting women as its primary focus but ultimately oppressing everyone.”
He noted that the law itself is expansive, “permeating both private and public spheres” and “offline and online environments.”
Nayyeri emphasized that the new chastity law not only has ramifications in Iran but globally, as “bad practices tend to spread across borders. What is done in one country can often be replicated in others, especially when regimes with similar ideologies look to one another for inspiration.”
Nayyeri also noted the difficulties the Iranian people may have fighting the punishments resulting from this law legally.
He said: “The legal profession in Iran is severely undermined, with the independence of the judiciary and the most basic standards of due process effectively nonexistent.” This is notwithstanding the fact that there is no legal mechanism within the court system to challenge or strike down an Act of Parliament.
“In addition, the enforcement mechanisms prescribed in the law are largely summarily enforceable, and the role of lawyers or any opportunity for legal challenge are extremely limited.”
He added that with citizens as enforcers, the issue becomes doubly complicated, and “the pressure to avoid conflict with authorities combined with the existing financial hardship could lead individuals to uphold the law, despite their personal beliefs.”
He said, “This is indeed a dystopian project straight out of Orwell’s 1984 that inevitably leads to a widespread culture of surveillance, conformism, and control.“
On how the Iranian people will respond to the new legislation, Nayyeri said, “Iranian people have proved time and again that they are resilient and determined, but this is such a comprehensive system, with such endless resources and extensive power vested in the authorities to enforce it, that defying it will be extremely difficult.
“The harsh reality is that if this law is enforced countless women and non-conforming individuals will be subjected to draconian measures and severe punishments prescribed by it.”
Roya Kashefi, the Head of Human Rights Committee of Association des Chercheurs Iraniens (ACI), echoed Nayyeri’s sentiments regarding public response to the new chastity law, and its larger sociopolitical ramifications.
Kashefi told Newsweek that the ACI conducted an online public opinion survey in February this year, building on a similar survey from 15 years ago.
The findings highlight a significant shift in religious beliefs among respondents: 66.55% reported a decline or outright rejection of religion, while only 1.44% indicated a strengthening of faith.
Among women, this trend was even starker: 70% reported a decline in religious belief, and 84% said the Islamic Republic has pushed them to lose faith or become actively anti-religion.
She said: “These numbers speak volumes about the societal transformation underway and the growing rejection of the regime’s religious impositions.
“In this context, introducing such a bill now is a knee-jerk reaction to the overwhelming desires for freedom and equality demonstrated by the Woman Life Freedom Movement. It is, in effect, a declaration of war on half the population, pitting Iranians against each other.”
She added: “Suppressing these rights under the guise of enforcing ideological conformity sets a dangerous precedent, eroding individual liberties.
“Laws should be clear, unambiguous, and focused on societal well-being—not tools for suppressing free thought and expression. As the events of the last two and a half years have shown, violations of fundamental rights inevitably lead to social unrest, protests, and civil disobedience.
“By enforcing this law, the regime is effectively provoking confrontation, relying on its history of brutal repression to intimidate the population into submission. However, resistance has already begun.”
Kashefi noted the global consequences of the passing of the new chastity law saying it is “not just a domestic issue.”
She said, “It has wide-reaching implications for human rights, global advocacy, and international relations.
“While it tightens the regime’s grip internally, it also risks amplifying resistance, both within and beyond its borders. Globally, it serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and freedom, galvanising solidarity movements and reinforcing the call for accountability in the face of oppression.”
After the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was arrested by Iran’s morality police after allegedly violating hijab rules in 2022, nationwide protests broke out in protest of the government’s treatment of women and pushing for women’s rights.
This led to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement with protests for women’s rights in Iran and cities all over the world over the last two years.
Since the beginning of the movement, Iranian authorities have increased the number of executions they have conducted, and the number of individuals executed by the government reached its highest point in eight years in 2023, according to Amnesty International.
