Iranian authorities are all set to introduce a new Bill on hijab-wearing, just weeks before the first anniversary of the outrage caused by Mahsa Aminis death. The experts fear that it would put unprecedentedly harsh punitive measures into law, said the media reports.In the 70-article draft law, it sets out a range of proposals, including much longer prison terms for women who refuse to wear the veil, stiff new penalties for celebrities and businesses who flout the rules, and the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to identify women in breach of the dress code.Experts on Irans new bill on hijabAccording to the experts, the bill, which is yet to be passed by the authorities, was a reminder to the Iranians that the regimes will not bow from its stance on hijab law despite witnessing massive protests against the same in 2022.A state-aligned news agency Mehr reported that this latest bill on hijab was submitted to by judiciary to the government for consideration earlier in 2023. Later, it was then forwarded to the parliament and subsequently approved by the Legal and Judicial Commission. It is set to be submitted to the Board of Governors this Sunday before it is introduced on the floor of Parliament.It is said that the parliament would work on finalising the text and voting on the bill in the upcoming two months.Last year in September, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, Amini died after she was detained by the regimes infamous morality police and taken to a re-education centre, allegedly for not abiding by the countrys conservative dress code, the media reports said.Strict action against women not wearing hijabAfter this incident sparked massive outrage in the entire country, the morality police pulled back its decision, however, it was not officially disbanded. But, now police spokesman General Saeed Montazerolmahdi said the morality police would resume notifying and then detaining women who are caught without the Islamic headscarf in public.Taking notes from Irans history, the hijab became mandatory in 1983 after the last Shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.Since then, Iran has traditionally considered Article 368 of its Islamic penal code as the hijab law, which states that those in breach of the dress code face between 10 days to two months in prison, or a fine between 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials, what is today between USD 1.18 to USD 11.82. Now, the new bill is a reclassifying failure to wear the hijab as a more severe offence, punishable by a five-to-ten-year prison sentence as well as a higher fine of up to 360 million Iranian rials (USD 8,508).That fine is far beyond what the average Iranian could pay, as millions are below the poverty line, Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Apart from the fines, several AI systems and cameras are set up to identify perpetrators of illegal behaviour using tools such as fixed and mobile cameras.
