News Center- Iranian authorities have adopted a new draconian law that further erases the human rights of women and girls, imposing the death penalty, flogging, prison terms and other severe penalties to crush ongoing resistance to compulsory veiling, Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday.

The “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab” will come into force on December 13, 2024, according to Iran’s Speaker of Parliament. “In a dangerous escalation, the law permits the imposition of the death penalty for peaceful activism against Iran’s discriminatory compulsory veiling laws,” the statement said.

“The law, containing 74 articles, also imposes flogging, exorbitant fines, harsh prison sentences, travel bans, and restrictions on education and employment for women and girls who defy compulsory veiling laws. It also penalizes private entities that fail to enforce compulsory veiling, while providing impunity to officials and vigilantes who violently attack women and girls for defying it.”

“This shameful law intensifies the persecution of women and girls for daring to stand up for their rights following the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ uprising. The authorities are seeking to entrench the already suffocating system of repression against women and girls while making their daily lives even more intolerable,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office.

Call on the international community

“The international community must not stand idly by as Iranian authorities further codify repression and even resort to the death penalty to suppress dissent against compulsory veiling. They must use their leverage to press the Iranian authorities to withdraw this law and abolish compulsory veiling in law and practice. They must also pursue legal pathways to hold Iranian officials accountable for committing widespread and systematic human rights violations against women and girls through the implementation of compulsory veiling.”

Iran’s judiciary drafted the new law in May 2023 in response to widespread defiance of compulsory veiling by women and girls in protest at the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini, which sparked the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising in September 2022.

Iran’s Guardian Council approved the bill earlier this year. Although the president has yet to ratify the law, Mohammad Ghalibaf, the Speaker of Parliament, announced on November 27, 2024 that the law would take effect on December 13, 2024.