Iran To Unveil Stricter Hijab Enforcement Plans For Schoolgirls

Iran's Deputy Minister of Education announced on Thursday that 16 chastity and hijab plans are to be implemented at schools.

“In 600,000 girls' schools, we must fulfill the task of promulgating Iran's progress and the Iranian girl's progress,” he said, without explaining what he means by ‘progress.’

Highlighting students' role in recent protests, he claimed that their participation is a result of a lack of space at schools to “exhaust students' pent-up energy.”

In December, he said that the enforcement of hijab among students should go “beyond school uniform rules,” suggesting that schools should have stricter dress code regulations.

His recent remarks are made at a time when the pressure on women to enforce hijab restrictions has dramatically increased. The Iranian government announced on April 13 that the morality police have been reactivated as part of a new initiative called 'Nour,’ aimed at curbing "immodesty."

Since then, social media has been flooded with videos demonstrating the widespread presence of the morality police and their violent crackdown on hijab rebels, prompting a massive backlash from women's rights activists, political commentators, and journalists.

Following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of the morality police in 2022, a significant number of morality police disappeared from the streets.

The renewed enforcement effort follows a directive from the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has consistently emphasized the need to adhere to "religious decrees" regarding the hijab, describing non-compliance as "religious norm-breaking."