UN Experts Say Iran’s Proposed Hijab Law May Amount to “Gender Apartheid”

A proposed Iranian legislation imposing harsher punishments for women who don’t cover their heads in public might amount to “gender apartheid,” UN rights experts said on Friday.

Iran has required women to cover their hair and neck in public since the Islamic revolution in 1979, and violators are subject to fines or jail sentences of up to two months.

Since widespread demonstrations were prompted by the death in detention of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been detained for allegedly breaking the ban, more women have started breaking the law and going bareheaded.

The conservatives in Iran, who control both the parliament and the government, have vehemently supported the clothing code.

The government and the court put out a “Support for the Culture of Hijab and Chastity” law in May, calling for more harsher penalties for noncompliance.

It increases fines and adds other penalties, such the temporary seizure of a woman’s car.

In a statement, eight UN rights experts argued that the proposed legislation “could be characterized as a form of gender apartheid.”

In order to completely subjugate women and girls, the authorities seem to be controlling via systematic discrimination.

The proposed law and current de facto limitations, according to experts like the Special Rapporteur on the state of human rights in Iran and members of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, “are inherently discriminatory and may amount to gender persecution.”

The UN Human Rights Council appoints the independent experts, who do not, however, comment on the organization’s behalf. They issued a warning that the bill’s harsh penalties “may lead to its violent enforcement.”

The right to participate in cultural life, the prohibition of gender discrimination, freedom of expression, the right to peacefully protest, the right to access social, educational, and health services, as well as the right to freedom of movement are all rights that they claimed the bill violated.

The experts condemned the use of words like “nudity” and “lack of chastity” in the measure, which they said tried to give public institutions the right to refuse necessary services and opportunities to women and girls who did not wear a headscarf.

They warned of “wider negative consequences for children and society as a whole” if “public morals” were used as a weapon to restrict women and girls’ freedom of expression. They claimed this was profoundly disempowering and would “entrench and expand gender discrimination and marginalization.”

In accordance with international human rights law, the experts urged the government to “urgently reconsider the mandatory hijab legislation and to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights for all women and girls in Iran.”