By Audrey Elwood, Staff Writer

Iran’s parliament approved a new controversial law that increases the punishments for improper hijab-wearing last week, setting new regulations around dress and modesty for women in Iran. 

The measure, known as the Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab Bill, was approved in a vote of 152 to 34 last Wednesday. It will not be enacted until the Guardian Council, a group of elders and morality counselors, approves the measure. 

While Iran has had a modesty code since 1981, this 70-article bill aims to make the current law much stricter and includes a wide range of proposals. The bill would raise the jail time from the current maximum of two months in prison to 10 years, and increase the fines from 5,000 to 500,000 rials ($0.10-$10.14) to 180 million to 360 million rials ($3,651-$7,302). 

Alongside these punishments, the bill enacts punishments for any “foreign governments, networks, media, groups or organizations” who purposefully promote violation of the law. Businesses can be punished for serving women without hijabs as well. Individuals who are found guilty of insulting or ridiculing the hijab also face fines and potential jail time.  

“I know a lot of people are talking about jail time. The law does say that, if you advocate or encourage what they call indecent behavior, then you can be imprisoned for five to ten years. But, I think they put that law there for activists,” Dr. Bashir Tofangsazi, a Xavier assistant professor of sociology who focuses on social movements in the Middle East and North Africa and a born and raised Iranian, said. 

Tofangsazi mentioned that the real point of concern for the average citizen is the fines. “For the everyday average citizen, they have put in really big fines. They can go up to the equivalent of about $2,000, which is a lot of money in Europe, and it’s a lot of money everywhere, but in that country, it could literally be equal to one year’s salary… if you are a low wage worker,” he said.

The bill targets “socially influential” people that wear hijabs improperly and states that if they are found guilty, they could also face jail time and a fine equivalent to 1-5% of their total assets.

The bill’s restrictions extend to toys and mannequins, which are barred from being portrayed with indecency.

The bill also states that artificial intelligence can be used to identify women who breach the imposed dress code. 

There was no public debate on the bill, due to Iran’s 85th article of their national constitution. This section has a provision that allows Iran’s parliament to pass a bill circumventing the standard procedure of debating potential laws.

Several human rights groups have spoken out against the bill, including the United Nations (UN). Experts at the UN have stated that the bill’s impacts could result in a “gender apartheid.” 

The bill comes almost exactly a year after the uproar around the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was charged with improperly wearing the hijab in public by the morality police. She died in Sept. 2022 in police custody under mysterious circumstances. 

This event sparked protests all over the nation attempting to topple the theocracy, with estimates of 500 people dying in the protests and over 22,000 people detained.

 The Iranian government has faced massive questioning of their legitimacy from religious groups because so many women have been out in public without the hijab. 

“The protests literally threatened the existence of the regime. So they knew that they couldn’t go out and beat more people up, beat more women up, kill more women or arrest more women.It would be a mess. But they wanted to do something, so they said, hey, we passed the law, we still care about this. We’re still an Islamic republic,” Tofangsazi said.