According to Amnesty International, Iranian authorities have increased their crackdown on women in recent months who are believed to have broken the Islamic republic’s strict clothing codes.
Unprecedented demonstrations rocked Iran for months after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in detention after being detained by the morality police for allegedly breaching the law in September 2022.
Following the protests, several Iranian officials advocated that the laws should be relaxed, and there were even rumors—never confirmed—that the morality police might be disbanded.
Amnesty reported that Iranian authorities have begun a new crackdown on women’s attire since April, despite the fact that the protests’ intensity had decreased over the previous months.
“The Iranian authorities are doubling down their oppressive methods of policing and punishing women and girls to quell widespread defiance of degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws,” Amnesty said.
It has been obligatory for women to cover their heads and necks since shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979 that ousted the secular shah.
