Iran’s top legislative body has turned down a new draft law aimed at giving more powers to Iranian police and notorious volunteer militias to enforce women’s compulsory wearing of the hijab.
The draft, entitled the “Plan on Protection of Promoters of Virtue and Vice,” was rejected by the country’s Guardian Council, an influential 12-member committee that scrutinizes Tehran’s legislation.
Quoting a council spokesman, the official IRNA news agency reported that the 24-point plan featured up to 14 flaws, that it “contradicted the constitution and was not approved.” The council sent the draft law back to parliament for reworking, the news agency said.
Iranian lawmakers wanted to give members of the Basij (a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini), power to verbally caution women they deem inappropriately dressed.
