“Police Must Enforce Good Hejab”

One of Qom’s highest ranking clerics, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, has called for police and security forces to take a tougher stance against women who do not wear the Islamic headscarf properly. He also suggested that, in some cases, officers could act outside the law.

“Although it is the law that determines the tasks of the police, in certain cases it is necessary to act beyond the law,” Sobhani told a Mehr News Agency journalist.

In an editorial published by Mehr on June 13, Sobhani wrote, “Some women wearing improper hejab come to Qom, and walk around the city with the intention of ruining the Islamic Code. No doubt, the police should act resolutely in this regard.”

Rows over “bad” or inappropriate hejab are never far out of the news in Iran. Hardliners staged demonstrations last year, calling for women to cover up with accordance to Islamic law. But in May, influential media figure Mohammad Reza Zaeri said that, although he thought women should wear the veil, the decision to make it compulsory after the 1979 Islamic Revolution might have been a “mistake”. 

“Those who do not cover properly want to propagate an un-Islamic dress code,” Sobhani said. “That’s why the security forces should focus on the crackdown on these women.”

Read the original article in Persian 

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