IRANIAN WOMEN PROTEST AGAINST MANDATORY HIJAB LAW



In Iran, women are required to properly cover their heads. It is against law for a woman not to wear hijab. The religious police are conferred with the responsibility of enforcing the proper dressing of women, especially wearing of Hijab on their heads.

The religious police are given power to arrest any woman driving without covering head properly. According to the CNN report, the law is so strict that women who allow their hijabs “to slip could be admonished by the religious police”.

The President of Iran, Mr. Hassan Rouhani won his re-election last year because of his pledge to relax some laws that seem to discriminate against women. Mr. Rouhani pledged that his government if re-elected would reform ‘many of the gender discriminatory laws’.

Women and youths are no longer taking it kindly with the government which rather than reforming the laws as promised during the electoral campaign, is empowering the police to enforce the discriminatory laws. There were several protests across Iran. In Tehran, the capital of the country, women were seen removing their hijabs in public “to protest Iran’s strict Islamic dress code in recent weeks”.

Iranian women are calling for equal rights.

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