Iranian women who resist wearing the hijab will now be “given treatment” at a specialist mental health clinic in Tehran: “the Clinic for Quitting Hijab Removal”.
A week ago, a university student from the Islamic Azad University in Tehran undressed to her underwear in sign of protest against the demands that women wear the hijab. She was taken to a psychiatric facility.
The clinic will be overseen by Iran’s Headquarters for Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil, the government body responsible for enforcing strict religious standards across society (which is under sanctions by the UK and other countries who claim human rights violations, with the UN calling it a “gender apartheid” and public condemnations from Amnesty International).
This creation is the Islamic Republic’s most recent response to the the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in September 2022, when protesters in Iran and abroad adopted the slogan after Jina Mahsa Amini died while in custody for “improper” attire – also arrested for wearing a hijab improperly.
Since 2022, Iran has buckled down on covert surveillance against women, a stifling morality police presence, and bans on unveiled women entering public spaces such as malls and parks. Celebrities who posted images of themselves without a hijab were issued with court-ordered mandates to have weekly visits to psychiatric centres, in order to present mental health certificates.
Last year, four Iranian psychiatric associations issued a joint statement condemning the government’s systemic branding of women who do not wear the hijab as mentally ill.
Other punishments included bank freezes and travel bans.
Mehri Talebi Darestani, who will run the centre, said it “will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity”.
She said the project is focused on promoting “dignity, modesty, chastity, and hijab”.
But attendance is optional, she claims.
