Iran Opens Clinic to ‘Treat’ Women Who Resist Hijab Mandate
Iran has launched a mental health clinic in Tehran, aiming to provide “treatment” for women and young people who resist wearing the hijab.
Named the Clinic for Quitting Hijab Removal, the facility represents the government’s latest measure to curb female dissent, following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted across Iran in 2022.
The clinic, led by Mehri Talebi Darestani, will offer what she describes as “scientific and psychological treatment” for teenage girls, young adults, and women, to reinforce “dignity, modesty, chastity, and hijab.” Although Darestani claims that attendance is optional, critics view the clinic as a coercive effort to enforce Islamic dress codes.
Iran’s Headquarters for Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil, a government agency responsible for enforcing religious compliance, will oversee the clinic. This department, which has faced sanctions from the UK and other nations for human rights abuses, is headed by Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The anti-hijab movement intensified in 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in police custody following her arrest for alleged hijab violations. Just last month, an Islamic Azad University student stripped down in protest of mandatory hijab laws, an act for which she was labeled mentally ill and transferred to a psychiatric facility.
