A conservative Majles deputy called for tougher laws to enforce Islamic dress code on women. A hard-line newspaper proposed confiscating women’s cars and denying them passports and driving licenses as new enforcement measures. Tehrani lawyer Aghasi tells Radio Farda that the only legal punishment for women appearing in public without proper Islamic head cover is a small fine. July 9, 2004 – To keep social peace and order, the law enforcement forces need a law regulating proper Islamic attire for women and ways to enforce it, Tehran MP Fatemeh Aliya said last week in a speech at the Majles.
Her comments were applauded by the hard-line newspaper Ya Resalat al-Hussein, the daily organ of the plainclothes security force Ansar-e Hezbollah, which called on the police to show more resolve in dealing with violators of the Islamic dress code. The conservatives maintain that for women to be properly drerssed, they have to be covered from head to toe with a veil, leaving exposed only the center of their faces and their hands.
The newspaper suggested temporay confiscating cars carrying improperly attired women, and refusing to issue driving licenses, passports and other official documents to women with a history of arrests for lack of proper Islamic head cover.
These suggestions are not enforceable, since they are not based on laws, Tehran lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi tells Radio Farda. In our laws there is no instruction or specific regulation or code for women’s dress. In the absence of a law, which must be passed by the Majles and the Guardians Council, nobody can dictate to women what they should wear and handout punishment to those who disobey, he adds.
He says reports of women having been flagged or jailed for lack of proper Islamic head cover may have been exaggerated. According to the Islamic penal code, he adds, the only punishment for appearing in public without proper Islamic head cover is a small fine.
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