Iranian Woman Doctor Sentenced to Cleaning Work for Flouting Hijab Laws

Iranian authorities have banned a resident doctor from working at government medical centers and required her to “serve as a cleaner” after she was caught driving without a hijab, a criminal law professor at Tehran University has said.

Professor Ali Khaleghi did not provide details about the case, but he described punishments imposed on women flouting mandatory headscarf laws as "humiliating." 

He criticized the severe lack of proportionality between the offenses and the punishments levied against perpetrators.

In an act of defiance against the ideology and laws of the Islamic Republic, a growing number of women have appeared in public without hijab since nationwide protests erupted in September last year.

Many defiant women have been arrested, summoned by the authorities and prosecuted, with criminal courts issuing harsh sentences against the defendants. Hundreds of businesses have been shut down for allegedly failing to enforce the Islamic Republic’s strict dress codes on their customers. 

Recently, a court in Tehran sentenced a woman to six months in prison and ordered her to attend six months of counseling sessions to treat her “no-hijab infectious disease.” 

As an alternative sentence, the court imposed up to 300 hours of community service and mandatory psychotherapy sessions twice a week.

Last month, a court in Tehran province handed down a sentence of 270 hours of compulsory cleaning services to a woman for failing to "observe hijab in public places and on the streets."

"The accused must work for four hours daily in the building of the Ministry of Interior and its associated departments such as the governor's office" in the capital, the feminist Twitter account Bidarzani said on June 19.

The report said this sentence was presented as an alternative to imprisonment.