Iran’s police-school pact sparks fear of hijab policing in classrooms

A cooperation agreement between Iran’s police and the education ministry has sparked backlash from the teachers' union, which fears the deal aims to reassert control over increasingly relaxed hijab compliance in schools.

“Teachers across the country will not allow schools to be turned into military barracks,” reads a statement by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations, which condemned the move on Monday.

The pact, signed between police chief Ahmadreza Radan and Education Minister Alireza Kazemi, grants security forces a role in shaping school policies in the name of cultural guidance.

“This is a degrading and alarming stance,” said Mohammad Habibi, the council’s spokesperson. He criticized the minister for calling himself a soldier of police and accused him of surrendering civilian education to military influence.

“The education ministry is not the minister’s private estate or a parade ground for security forces,” Habibi said.

Teachers and rights groups say the agreement violates students’ rights and threatens the safety of schools. “Any intrusion of police into the secure space of schools is blatantly illegal, repressive, and a violation of both student and teacher rights,” Habibi added.

Kazemi defended the agreement in a televised ceremony, calling hijab “one of today’s challenges that requires cultural efforts.”

Radan, who is under US, EU, and Canadian sanctions for human rights abuses, said cooperation between police and schools must go further.

"While this memorandum of understanding and the militarization and policing of schools is very painful and aims to exert pressure on our teenagers, it also reflects a kind of acknowledgment of the regime's failure in enforcing compulsory hijab," Roghayeh Rezaei, a member of the IranWire website editorial team said in an interview with Iran International.

The Council’s warning follows mounting pressure on students and teachers since the 2022 protests that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. The young woman was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly.

In recent months, pro-government outlets such as Tasnim News have called for surveillance cameras in classrooms and tighter controls on student behavior.

“Schools are no place for batons or coercive forces. Don't entrust cultural matters to colonels. The consequences will come back to haunt you,” Morteza Beheshti Langroudi, a teacher and former political prisoner wrote on X.

The Iranian government said in January that the implementation of the controversial hijab law has been postponed due to the potential unrest it may spark.

The law was due to impose harsh penalties on women and girls who defy veiling requirements, including fines, prison terms, flogging and even the death penalty.

Many women now refuse to wear the compulsory head covering, long tunics, and trousers as dictated by the country's Shariah law. They are also now often seen singing and dancing in public in defiance of the religious establishment.