Iranians voted for a new president on Friday, June 28, following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May. The outcomes will be announced on Sunday, June 30. The required hijab was a hot topic in the election campaigns.
📹 Election Day for Iranians is a day of joy and happiness pic.twitter.com/jEstTVYdnw
— Khamenei Media (@Khamenei_m) June 28, 2024
Six people stood for office, and two withdrew at the last minute, as is normal. Four of the remaining candidates are hardliners, with the exception of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocates for greater social openness and interaction with the West. He is the most outspoken opponent of forced hijab and the morality police, as well as the only candidate who has explicitly stated that he does not believe in instructing people how to dress.
خبر شهادت مظلومانه نيروهای غيور انتظامی شهرستان راسك از سوی اشرار جنايت‌كار که در حین صیانت از آرای مردم مورد حمله ناجوانمردانه قرار گرفت، موجب تأثر و تألم فراوان شد.
ضمن تسليت اين حادثه ناگوار به ریاست ستاد کل نیروهای مسلح، فرماندهی کل انتظامی، نیروهای فراجا و ملت غيور ايران و…
— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) June 29, 2024
During a four-hour live broadcast debate on social issues leading up to these elections, women and the hijab dominated the conversation. The issue has also surfaced.
Iranians are also annoyed with restrictions on their personal lives, particularly the requirement that women wear the hijab, which led to mass protests in 2022.
Women comprise over half of Iran’s 61 million eligible voters. Although voter apathy is strong among critics of the government, opposition to the hijab law and the morality police has crossed gender, religion, and class lines, and today some of the loudest objections are from religious people and conservatives, the backbone of the administration’s constituency.
It is unclear what will happen to the statute under the next administration. Different governments have had a milder or tougher attitude to hijab. Under Ebrahim Raisi, the president who died in the plane crash, Iran’s parliament has been working on legislation that would impose punitive damages on women who break the rules, such as denying them social services, imposing travel bans, and allowing the judiciary to withdraw funds from their bank accounts.
However, some Iranian women’s rights activists and observers argue that even bringing the subject up during elections is a victory. It demonstrates that the “Women, Life, Freedom” civil disobedience movement, which began in 2022, is too powerful to ignore.
Over time, the protests evolved from group to individual actions. Girls and women are strolling the streets, eating at restaurants, going to work, and taking public transportation in dresses, crop tops, and skirts, with their hair uncovered. This is perilous since morality police lurk on street corners, ready to arrest women who disobey the norms.
According to an Amnesty International investigation, in recent months, facial recognition software in traffic surveillance cameras and drones has been used to identify hijab law offenders, who are subsequently called to court via phone text.
Ban dangerous facial recognition technology that amplifies racist policing – Amnesty International
Who is Mahisa Amini?
Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman, was arrested in Tehran for resisting mandatory hijab and later died in police custody, sparking a wave of protests across Iran. She was 22 years old and had been arrested by the country’s morality police for allegedly failing to follow the government’s obligatory standards for women’s headscarves and dress restrictions.
Her tragic murder sparked demonstrations, skirmishes with security forces, and widespread condemnation of Iran’s limits on liberties. The impact of her case continues to resonate, even a year after her death.
What are morality police in Iran?
The Guidance Patrol, sometimes known as the “morality police,” is an Islamic religious police force and vice squad under the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Established in 2005, their major responsibility is to enforce the Islamic dress code, specifically ensuring that women in Iran wear hijabs that cover their hair and bodies.
