Reports suggest that the Iranian government is planning to open a ‘hijab removal treatment clinic’ for women who have defied the country's mandatory hijab laws. The special mental health clinic is for women who resist wearing the hijab and defy the government's dress code.

According to a report by The Guardian, Mehri Talebi Darestani, Head of the Women and Family Department of Tehran's Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, announced the opening of a ‘hijab removal treatment clinic’. The clinic will provide ‘scientific and psychological treatment’ for women who remove their hijabs.

The mental health clinic is designed to promote ‘dignity, modesty, chastity, and hijab’. According to Darestani, visits to the clinic are voluntary and not mandatory. The clinic will be supervised by Iran's Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

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Iranian human rights lawyer Hossein Raeesi criticised the concept of a clinic for women who defy hijab laws, stating it is ‘neither Islamic nor aligned with Iranian law’. He also expressed concern that the announcement came from the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which operates under the direct authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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Growing Concerns Of Torture And Forced Medication

The announcement of the ‘hijab removal treatment clinic’ follows reports that a university student, arrested for protesting her assault by campus security over hijab law violations, was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have raised concerns about the use of torture, violence, and forced medication on protesters and political dissidents deemed mentally unstable by authorities, who are then placed in state-run psychiatric facilities.

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Many Iranian women, including celebrities like Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi, and Leila Bolukat, were required to present mental health certificates and were court-ordered to attend weekly visits to psychiatric centres.

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