Iranian authorities are taking shocking new measures to impose the compulsory use of the hijaba theme that has become symbolic after the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Among the initiatives that leave us most speechless is the proposal to establish clinics for the psychological treatment of women who refuse to wear the veil.
These facilities were reportedly presented as one educational measure rather than repressive, but in fact they risk becoming a further tool for suppress dissent. Mohammad Reza Mirshamsi, deputy director of the Center for the Ordering of Good and the Prohibition of Evil, said these clinics are designed to “educate” women about alleged damages of failure to comply with the obligation to wear the hijab.
The idea, proposed by the judiciary, is to replace financial penalties with “psychological rehabilitation” sessionspresented as a way to convince women to respect the law. At the same time, the government announced the opening of a clinic in Tehran intended to offer support to women who feel pressured to wear the veil, initially described as a voluntary measure.
The same was done with Ahoo Daryaei
This decision follows the recent episode that caused a huge uproar with the student Ahoo Daryaei who stripped in protest at Tehran University. Authorities described his actions as sign of instability mental and they transferred her to a facility for “psychological treatment”, only to later release her and allow her to return home.
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Activists and human rights organizations have denounced this strategy as an attempt to label rebellious women as mentally unstableundermining their credibility and justifying repressive interventions.
It is not the first time that psychiatry has been used as a form of social control in Iran. From the 2022 riots onwards, several protesters, particularly women, they were committed to psychiatric hospitals against their willwith accusations of mental instability. This practice not only represents a violation of human rights, but serves to discredit those who oppose the regime.
Criticism against these initiatives has come from both Iran and abroad. Journalists and activists highlight how the opening of such clinics represents a move for suffocate the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movementborn to claim fundamental rights.
A situation that is no longer acceptable, but which continues to worsen. Measures that are passed off as “educational” when in reality they are extremely repressive and undermine every kind of freedomas in the worst regimes that we have sadly come to know throughout history.
