Iran Establishes Mental Health Clinic to ‘Treat’ Women Who Refuse to Wear Hijab

Iran has established a specialist mental health clinic in Tehran aimed at providing treatment for women who resist wearing the hijab.

The clinic, named the “Clinic for Quitting Hijab Removal,” is the latest initiative by the Islamic Republic to suppress female dissent following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted in 2022.

Mehri Talebi Darestani, who will run the centre, said it “will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity”.

She said the project is focused on promoting “dignity, modesty, chastity, and hijab” and claimed that attendance would be “optional”.

The new clinic will be managed by Iran’s Headquarters for Enjoining the Good and Forbidding the Evil, a government body tasked with enforcing religious and moral standards across society.

This department has been heavily criticized and sanctioned by the UK and other nations due to its history of human rights abuses, particularly its harsh treatment of women who defy Iran’s strict dress codes.

The clinic is headed by Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, who was appointed directly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Earlier this month, a student from Tehran’s Islamic Azad University protested the compulsory hijab by removing her clothes down to her underwear. She was labeled as mentally ill and sent to a psychiatric facility.

The anti-hijab movement gained momentum following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 while in the custody of Iran’s morality police in Tehran. The 22-year-old had been detained for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly.