Iranian Pharmacies Face Legal Action for Hijab Non-Compliance
Iran’s health ministry's food and drug administration has announced that if pharmacies fail to enforce mandatory hijab the government will reduce their allocation of medications.
Iran’s health ministry's food and drug administration has announced that if pharmacies fail to enforce mandatory hijab the government will reduce their allocation of medications.
Non-compliant pharmacies risk facing legal consequences, as stated by Heidar Mohammadi during a briefing at the Presidential Communications Center on Monday. However it is not clear if the official was referring to violations by pharmacy staff or customers.
Mohammadi emphasized that the organization was among the pioneers in enforcing the mandatory hijab, leading to the implementation of specific dress code regulations within pharmacies. Describing non-compliance as a "deviation," he noted that "compliance with norms" is crucial for pharmacies to maintain their quota allocations.
“If a pharmacy fails to adhere to the norms, it will initially receive a warning. Should the warning prove ineffective, more severe deterrent measures will be executed. Continuous non-compliance will lead to legal actions against the violators,” Mohammadi added.
The food and drug administration of Iran, which oversees the policies and guidelines for a wide range of products including drugs, food, and medical devices, introduced hijab mandates for female pharmacy staff in August 2021. The mandates, which were reinforced in February 2023, require all female employees to wear a black veils among other dress code rules.
In the wake of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, several pharmacies were sealed across various Iranian cities for failing to comply with the regulations.
The protests highlighted widespread discontent with mandatory hijab laws among other issues related to women's rights in the country.
Their remarks mainly target the government's handling of issues related to compulsory hijab and financial misconduct. They question why individuals like Tehran Friday Prayers Imam Kazem Sedighi, who confessed to appropriating a $20-million land in Tehran, remain unprosecuted and at large.
However, many such critics, fearing reprisal, opt to direct their criticism not at the Supreme Leader, but towards other officials, such as Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, appointed by Khamenei, who is perceived as merely executing the Supreme Leader's directives.
The most prominent cleric speaking about corruption was Grand Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli , who warned the government, or in fact Khamenei, that "the problem of hijab cannot be solved using bayonets."
Speaking about the violent crackdown on Iranian women who defy compulsory hijab, Javadi Amoli said teasingly: "Adjusting the headscarf to cover more of the hair does not guarantee chastity and will certainly not prevent financial corruption."
Meanwhile, Khabar Online website quoted the ayatollah as having said in an older tweet: "Sometimes people write to me and ask why I do not say anything about the hijab." He continued that the problem of hijab cannot be solved with harsh measures. "The only thing that kind of measures can do is to encourage people to adhere to the appearance of the hijab rules. Otherwise, the problem remains unresolved."
In another development, Jamaran news website quoted Muslim scholar Ayatollah Yadollah Douzdouzani Tabrizi as having said in reference to the land grab by Tehran Friday Prayer Imam Kazem Sedighi who apologized to Khamenei for his wrongdoing: "We cannot make such mistakes and simply apologize to make it up to others."
He reminded that whatever clerics do or say is done or said in the name of Islam. He warned that taking one wrong step by a cleric will go a long way to discredit Islam. The ayatollah said this as part of peaching to his pupils at his ethics class at the seminary.
Elsewhere, in a letter to Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the centrist Ntional Development Party, asked him why he is silent in the face of organized violations of the law. According to the letter: "The re-emergence of the ‘morality police’ in the streets simultaneously with the missile attack on Israel means taking advantage of an international issue to further a domestic factional matter."
The party told Ejei: "You have deeply hurt the sentiments of our nation by equating adherence to compulsory hijab with chastity, and by urging the police to treat Iranian women who defy compulsory hijab as if they were dealing with enemy agents."
The letter further stated that "It is a shame that while the country is facing its worst economic crisis in 45 years and it is at war with Israel, authorities have assigned the police force to confront the women. What makes you think that it is part of your responsibilities to harass people's wives and daughters in the streets?"
Khabar Online published a statement by Ahmad Abdollahi, a cleric at the "Promotion of Virtues and Prohibition of Vice Headquarters as saying that: "Some 2,000 women who have been arrested for hijab, have said in interviews with officials that the introduction of the morality police has had no positive impact on the way Iranian women dress."
Along the same lines, Ayatollah Mostafa Dousti Zanjani pointed out that "The people are against the government's order to enforce compulsory hijab," adding that this has been counterproductive. The Friday Prayers Imam of Gorgan Kazem Nourmofidi also said that "In the same way that the government failed to force Iranian women to remove their headscarves in the 1930s, it is impossible to force Iranian women today to wear headscarves."