The “Amirkabir Newsletter” reported the installation of cameras in the campuses of Tehran’s Amirkabir and Beheshti universities, stating that students are summoned via phone calls “due to their attire.”
According to this report, the installed cameras in the university environment are being used as a new tool for suppressing the violation of the regime’s dress code.
An “informed source” told Amirkabir Newsletter that “campus security forces are also examining the internal cameras of educational environments to take the most severe action against students who they claim have violated the dress code.”
Students believe that phone summons based on the disciplinary regulations approved in Aban (October/November) 2022 are “illegal.”
In this regard, students are also protesting against the phone summons being “without stating the subject” and consider it “illegal.”
However, the enforcement of disciplinary regulations is taking place while, according to many independent jurists, various parts of the “disciplinary” regulations, including the regulation being referenced, contradict principles of human rights, such as freedom of expression, freedom of thought and belief, freedom of assembly and association.
On Tuesday, student news sources also reported the establishment of “guidance patrol” at the University of Tehran, with students being required to wear “Maqna’eh (a type of headscarf) and long overcoat” reaching “below the knee.”
According to the public relations channel of “United Students,” on Tuesday, September 26, it was stated in a report that the university’s security prevented students wearing headscarves from entering through the main gate and announced that students are “required to wear Maqna’eh and overcoat reaching below the knee” to enter.
According to this channel’s announcement, “hijab patrols (morality police) have also started operating in the central area of the University of Tehran.”
This is happening while a bill approved by the Majlis (parliament) titled “Chastity and Hijab” emphasizes that a “database of students” should be handed over to the “law enforcement forces” in order to identify individuals without hijab.
Some universities have also taken steps to obtain “written commitments” with various clauses in order to impose the desired “compulsory hijab.” The texts of these commitment letters state that “in case of non-compliance with the above-mentioned matters, individuals who violate the university’s chastity and hijab laws will be dealt with and their families will be informed.”
In addition to the measures taken by government institutions to impose the desired dress code on students, the Ministry of Health of the Islamic Republic has also issued an executive directive for the dress code of medical students and assistants. It emphasizes restrictions on clothing, makeup, the use of perfume, and “observance of religious boundaries” in the presence of “non-mahram” individuals (close relatives).
According to the Ministry of Health’s notification, which was issued September 20, under the title “Code of Conduct and Dress Code for Students and Assistants” for the new academic year, wearing “short or tight clothes, open-front overcoats, silk fabric, net, or open-collar clothes” is prohibited.
In December 2022, the University of Tehran implemented the decision of its Cultural Council regarding the treatment of opponents of compulsory hijab.
The Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Education also previously stated in separate statements, following the widespread opposition to compulsory hijab after the killing of Mahsa Amini in the custody of “Morality Police,” that they are “excused from providing services to individuals who do not consider themselves obliged to comply with the hijab law.”
In June, the University of Art in Tehran made the wearing of Maqna’eh compulsory on campus, which was met with protests by students.
In the same context, on June 17, simultaneous with the ongoing protests of students at the University of Art in Tehran against the compulsory wearing of Maqna’eh, student guild councils announced that a “significant number” of these students were detained by plainclothes forces and transferred to an undisclosed location.
With the beginning of the academic year in universities, along with the final approval of the “Chastity and Hijab” bill, a security atmosphere has prevailed over educational environments.
Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, which saw the mullahs rise to power, the ruling regime has institutionalized the oppression of women in the constitution and legal fields such as inheritance, testimony, judging, traveling abroad, and so on. This has resulted in the systemic marginalization of half of Iran’s population and the emergence of many social and economic problems across the country.
Many of the minimum rights recognized for women across the world are out of reach for Iranian women, and gender equality is in total contrast to the misogynistic beliefs of the ruling mullahs.
The policy of compulsory hijab is another aspect of discrimination against Iranian women. Iran’s security forces implemented the compulsory veil in Iran was implemented shortly after 1979 revolution, anyone does not abide by it will face consequences like jail. Mandatory veil is against Islam and is only meant to enchain women, facilitating a general social clampdown. Since the first day, imposing the veil on women was a means of repression and obstructing women’s path, and nothing else.
During its four-decade rule, the regime has intensified violence against women to the point security forces brutally harass young women and girls and drag them on the ground and beat them.
But the reality is that Iranian women have never tolerated this oppression in the last 44 years and have always been at the forefront of protesting against discrimination.
Tens of thousands of women have been killed in the struggle against this regime, and there are women who are at the forefront of the Iranian resistance and hold the position of leader.
These brave women want to overthrow this brutal regime and create a better world for Iranian women.
In this regard Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the president elect of the National Council of resistance of Iran, said, “The repression of women under the pretext of hijab has nothing to do with Islam. It is imperative to resist such oppression. Anything that goes against human freedom and free choice is not credible, whether it is compulsory religion, compulsory veil, or compulsory worship.”
