Article 368 of the Islamic Penal Code, stated as Iran’s Hijab Law has further aggravated the preexisting oppression faced by women. Women who refuse to wear the hijab in Iran are now being sent to psychiatric centres to be medically treated as “ill”.
State authorities in Iran are now exercising their judicial power over psychiatric health care as a medium to oppress womens’ rights. The implementation of the law itself has garnered widespread criticism and revolt within the country itself. Women who are now refusing to wear the Hijab at all times and properly, are being sent to psychological wellness centers.
The aim of these centers is to propagate the repressive Hijab law and use medical science as a tool for it.
Afsaneh Bayegan, a renowned Iranian TV actress, recently attended a public celebration without wearing the Hijab. She also took to social media and posted photos without the hijab. This has been her form of public dissent and hampers with the State laws provided by the government. She has been the most famous actor in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
This was not taken well by the authorities and she has been ordered to serve two years in prison. Along with the jail time, she has also been directed to visit the ‘psychological center’ once a week in order to cure her “anti family personality disorder”.
A separate court in Tehran has sentenced a woman to visit the same centres and clean corpses at the morgue She was found driving without the Hijab at the same morgue. The court deems it as a contagious disorder which “leads to sexual promiscuity”. Exploiting the Psychiatry sector, Iran’s authorities are now aiming at using distorted medical information to perpetuate a fear amongst their woman.
Many professors claim that this misuse highlights the inability of Iran’s authorities to control the wave of revolt spreading across their country. This obligation imposed upon women from years is now being openly condemned and revolted against post the killing of Mahsa Amini in September last year. She was detained by the Morality police in Iran which is the controlling authority of all repressive laws. Eventually, she died for the sole reason of wearing a Hijab “improperly”.
Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Eiji, the president of four major health organisations in Iran wrote a letter to the judiciary over highly alarming rates of such sentences. The open letter condemned and criticised the State for “exploiting psychiatry” as an Oppressive machinery. Declaring made up diagnosis, the letter also stated that Judges are not the legitimate authorities to diad=gnose a mental health disorder. Even children are being held at such centers to “re-educate” them.
The criminalisation of a basic human right is facing dissent from lawmakers worldwide, including their own country. The increased number of fines and degenerating psychiatric sciences would cause annihilation of the civil rights of women.
