The Criminalization of the “Indecent Hijab” and the Expansion of Gendered Violence in Iran

• In Event: Roundtable: Domestic, Gendered, and Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Numerous studies have discussed women’s hijab in Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s various policies regarding the hijab since 1979. Examining multiple Iranian newspaper and media datasets from 1988 until 2009, I demonstrate one of the most underexplored outcomes of harsh hijab policies in Iran: gendered violence. I show how state-led protests and harsh rhetoric, coupled with pro-hijab policies and the criminalization of the “indecent hijab” by the Islamic Republic, extended the boundaries of gendered violence in Iran.
This type of gendered violence has two manifestations: periodic mass arrests of women who did not and do not comply with official sartorial practices, along with severe verbal warnings toward them. This form of violence illustrates the Islamic Republic’s tendency to control over the public sphere by regulating the presence of women, a strategy that arguably has failed.
My research helps social movement scholars as well as scholars of Islamic feminism make sense of the 2022 Woman, Life, Liberty Movement in Iran, its consequences, and the enduring struggle over the hijab between Iranian women and the Islamic Republic.

Author

• Amirhossein Teimouri, Tarleton State University