Iran: “Psychiatric clinic” is supposed to treat uncovered women

Purple bustier, striped underpants, black hair down: Because the Iranian student, 30, walked across the campus of the private Azad University in Tehran in this outfit.

Daryaei was arrested and, according to the regime, taken to a “care center for special treatment” following the operation. The reason: She suffers from “mental instability”.

According to reports in the British newspapers ” and “, this model is now setting a precedent in Iran. According to official information, a “clinic to stop hijab removal” is to be built in Tehran. It is the Islamic Republic’s latest attempt to nip in the bud women’s resistance that has gripped the country since the violent death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that followed and who is a thorn in the side of the religious-conservative regime.

The so-called Central Office for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is said to be the force behind the supposed psychiatric clinic. This is the government agency responsible for enforcing strict religious regulations. It is headed by Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, who was directly appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The authority has repeatedly been sharply criticized internationally for its human rights violations and the brutal punishment of women who do not adhere to the Islamic dress code.

The head of the government agency’s women and family department, Mehri Talebi Darestani, said the clinic would provide “scientific and psychological treatments regarding hijab removal.” The “voluntary” offer is aimed specifically at teenagers and young women who are “looking for a social and Islamic identity.” The project focuses on promoting “dignity, modesty, chastity and hijab.”

The measure shows how afraid the Islamic Republic is of uncovered women. The regime’s repressive measures have been intensifying for years. For example, by increasing the presence of moral police and banning uncovered women from entering public spaces such as shopping centers and parks.

In addition, the authorities have been relying on camera surveillance in public places for a few months. The recordings are intended to identify women who do not wear a headscarf. Those caught not lawfully covering their hair will receive a “warning text message.” According to reports, this will relieve or even replace the Iranian moral police, who have been enforcing the rules so far. The regime is presumably supported by technical equipment from China.

Internationally, the criticism does not stop. The United Nations described the crackdown as “gender apartheid.” In the wake of the protests, Iranian celebrities showed solidarity by posting pictures of themselves without hijabs. The regime then issued travel bans, froze bank accounts and ordered some women to make weekly visits to psychiatric centers by court order.

Last year, four Iranian psychiatric associations issued a joint statement. In this they condemned the fact that women who do not wear the hijab are systematically labeled as mentally ill. “The diagnosis of mental disorders falls within the purview of a psychiatrist and not a judge, just as the diagnosis of other diseases falls within the purview of doctors and not judges,” the psychiatrists wrote in a July letter to Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the chief justice of Iran.

Human rights groups also expressed horror at the regime’s latest plan. The Guardian quotes Iranian lawyer Hossein Raeesi as saying that the idea of ​​a clinic to treat women who do not adhere to hijab laws is “neither Islamic nor compatible with Iranian law.” A young Iranian woman anonymously told the newspaper: “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison.” Now is the time to return to the streets, otherwise all women who oppose the regime will be locked up.

The news spread quickly on social media and caused massive criticism there too. “A disturbing attempt to pathologize dissent and silence voices for #WomenLiveFreedom,” writes one . An anti-racism activist: “It has nothing to do with Islam.”