ICHRI:

Promotion of Virtue Legislation Calls for Citizen Enforcement of Women’s “Proper” Hijab

March 6, 2015—The Iranian Parliament should immediately withdraw the pending Plan to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, which explicitly calls for Basij militias to enforce strict hijab (female dress), the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. This plan not only violates the rights of all Iranian women, it also presents a clear and present danger to their continued safety.

Further, the Iranian Judiciary should bring all efforts to bear to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of the recent string of acid attacks against women in Iran, which have been linked to the extra-judicial enforcement of hijab called for in the Plan, the Campaign added.

The acid attacks, which began in late 2014 in the Iranian city of Isfahan, involved unidentified men flinging acid into the faces of women with whom they had no history of personal grudges. At least fourteen attacks have been reported, and eyewitnesses have reported that the assailants proclaimed they were defending hijab during the assaults. No one has been charged in any of the attacks.

“Unless state officials make it clear that any citizen who takes it upon himself to enforce female dress codes is acting illegally and will be punished to the full extent of the law, we can expect more of these horrific attacks,” said Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director of the Campaign.

In a Briefing Paper released today on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Vigilante Violence: The Acid Attacks in Iran and the State’s Assault on Women’s Rights, the Campaign details the Parliamentary legislation, state policies, and public pronouncements by state officials and high-level clerics that have created a climate conducive to violence against women, and, specifically, fertile ground for the acid attacks in Iran.

Download PDF of full report here 

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