Cartoon by Mana Neyestani

Pezeshkian to seek legal solution to Iran's latest hijab law

Iran International: Critics of Iran's new hijab law say President Masoud Pezeshkian should not only refuse to take responsibility for its implementation but also try to find a way to shelve or abolish it.

The law mandates extensive surveillance of public spaces to identify women who fail to comply with full hijab regulations, imposing hefty fines and even prison sentences on violators.

The new law also demands businesses including hospitality establishments, retail shops, and taxi services refuse service to unveiled women or report them to the authorities to avoid being penalized themselves.

"The main goal of those insisting on the implementation of the hijab law, in my view, is to bring down Pezeshkian’s government," prominent reformist politician and journalist Abbas Abdi wrote on Wednesday.

Many others, from reformist politician and former vice-president Masoumeh Ebtekar to conservative Qom Seminary teacher Hojjat ol-Eslam Mohsen Gharavian have objected to the provisions of the hijab law ultra-hardliners insist must be implemented.

The government must reject and protest to the hijab law, Gharavian who argues that the punishments stipulated in the law, such as withdrawing the fine for unveiling from people’s bank accounts without their consent, is unacceptable even from the religious point of view, Gharavian said in an interview with Khabar Online news website Tuesday.

According to Pezeshkian’s special aide in matters of social freedoms and rights, Sakineh-Sadat Paad, the President is planning to consult with Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf in a meeting of the heads of the three government forces to find a solution for the problem.

The rush to implement a law that is questionable to Muslim religious jurists, legal experts, sociologists, and others is not rational, she argued in an X post a day before Pezeshkian’s televised interview Monday. “A good law must be acceptable to the society,” she added.

confrontations with morality police in the streets. Beyond the oppressive nature of the new law, individuals close to the Islamic government worry that violent enforcement of hijab regulations could ignite social unrest.

As president, Pezeshkian is required to give the new law official status by signing it and communicating it to all government bodies for implementation. In a televised interview Monday, he insisted that it would be hard to implement and warned that its enforcement would lead to widespread discontent in Iranian society.

Pezeshkian also said he was conferring with other top officials to find a way not to enforce the hijab law.

Critics of the new law within Iran's political establishment, spanning from reformists to numerous conservatives, have called on President Pezeshkian to appeal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to use his extraordinary powers to issue a decisive ruling and resolve the impasse.

Critics suggest that Pezeshkian could attempt to persuade Khamenei that enforcing the new law runs counter to public and national interests, urging him to either order its suspension or refer the matter to a state body for further deliberation.

Pezeshkian can request through a letter to the Supreme Leader to ask him to have the law removed from the country’s agenda because it is against the fundamental rights of the nation, public interests and national interests, the reformist Sazandegi newspaper wrote Monday.

Khamenei, who has consistently maintained that everyone must adhere to hijab laws regardless of their personal beliefs because "it is the law," has so far refrained from commenting on the new legislation.

Another option critics, including prominent lawyer and member of the central council of the reformist Servants of Construction Party, Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei, have proposed is for Pezeshkian to bring the issue before the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). They contend that the Council holds the authority to suspend the law’s implementation if it determines the matter impacts national

As president, Pezeshkian heads the SNSC. Nevertheless, nearly all the other members including the chiefs of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Police, and Joint Staff of the Armed forces are directly appointed by Khamenei and answer only to him, not the president.

Article 176 of the Iranian Constitution also stipulates that all the decisions taken by the Council must be endorsed by the Supreme Leader to become effective.

A third solution proposed by others, including a group of legal experts who penned an open letter to Pezeshkian, is to call for a national referendum on the issue. Alternatively, the legal experts suggest referring the matter to the Expediency Council, which, under Article 112 of the Constitution, can deliberate on any issue assigned to it by the Supreme Leader.

The proposal to hold a referendum, however, requires the approval of two-thirds of all members of Parliament which s dominated by hardliners and ultra-hardliners. The hijab law was approved in the previous term of the parliament in October 2023. However, ultra-hardliners have a stronger foothold in the new Parliament which started work in late May.