The Iranian parliament on Wednesday permitted a invoice to impose harsher penalties on ladies who refuse to put on the obligatory Islamic hijab in public locations and on those that assist them.
The transfer got here simply days after the anniversary of the dying of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who was arrested by morality police on prices of violating the nation’s gown code. Her dying in custody sparked months of protests wherein many known as for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical regime.
The invoice additionally expands penalties to incorporate enterprise homeowners who serve ladies who don’t put on the obligatory hijab, generally known as the hijab, and activists who arrange in opposition to it. Violators might withstand 10 years in jail if the crime happens in an organized method.
The invoice, permitted by 152 deputies in Iran’s 290-seat parliament, requires ratification by the Guardian Council, a non secular physique that acts as a constitutional oversight physique. It’s going to enter into power for an preliminary interval of three years.
The demonstrations that erupted after Amini’s dying on September 16, 2022, fizzled out early this 12 months after a extreme crackdown on dissent wherein greater than 500 demonstrators have been killed and greater than 22,000 arrested.