Recently, it was reported that the parliament is considering a bill on modesty and hijab, which would be implemented through Article 85 of the Constitution. This bill aims to regulate and penalize the behavior of women in cyberspace, including the promotion of voluntary – as opposed to mandatory – hijab.
Since, like any modern movement, a significant portion of the events of the “Women Life Freedom” uprising took place online, the government’s attempts to suppress this domain were predictable.
However, is the “hijab and modesty” law and its potential consequences solely a result of the government’s repressive response to the recent progressive uprising?
The bill is, in fact, not an isolated incident but part of a broader strategy by the government to monitor and control cyberspace, which has been developing for years.
In other words, if we accept that the government, in the real world, transforms customary beliefs into laws, using them as tools for pervasive suppression to control society, then in the virtual world, it can also, with the help of micro-norms like hijab, seek to legitimize the monitoring and control of citizens’ produced content, this time in the form of the hijab and modesty bill.
The infrastructure for such an approach has been created under the National Information Network, a domestic intranet which will limit access to the global internet based on profession, thereby violating net neutrality principles. The government justifies this action under the guise of “protecting users,” but in reality, it is a way to limit their freedom and rights in the digital age.
What does the bill say?
The bill on modesty and hijab sets new boundaries for women’s freedom of expression and how they appear in cyberspace. It defines what constitutes a violation of modesty and hijab, and specifies the penalties and authorities for enforcing them.
According to the bill, women are not prohibited from appearing without a hijab in the virtual space, but they are forbidden from criticizing or promoting optional hijab. Additionally, the bill introduces certain restrictions for businesses on the hijab issue.
The penalties for violating the bill range from fines to imprisonment, depending on the severity and frequency of the offense. The bill also empowers various agencies, such as the police, the judiciary, and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, to monitor and prosecute women who breach the modesty and hijab rules in the virtual space.
According to the modesty and hijab bill, real-world businesses will be penalized if they display or promote behaviors not in line with hijab norms. The bill also prohibits businesses from collaborating with online influencers who promote optional hijab. On the other hand, it encourages and supports businesses that sell and advertise hijabs. Overall, the bill has two main implications for cyberspace: it requires users to verify their identity and it allows the government to monitor and collect their content and meta-data; and the bill gives legal authority to the armed forces, especially the Revolutionary Guards, to access and use users’ data for security and commercial purposes, under the pretext of enforcing modesty and hijab.
How Security Agencies Can Monitor and Identify Users in the Virtual Space
This plan tasks security institutions, including the Ministry of Intelligence, with the responsibility of monitoring and identifying individuals promoting optional hijab. This raises the question of how they can access and analyze the users’ content without violating their privacy. There are two possible methods for this. The first is to use preventive algorithms that can detect violations based on keywords and image recognition services. The second is to obtain data from various platforms, which is easier for domestic platforms than for international ones.
Eisa Zarepour, the Minister of Communications in March 2022, told the state news agency IRNA that security agencies would only have access to users’ data “in special cases” with the approval of special judges and the head of the judiciary. However, it seems that the special cases granting this access are gradually increasing.
Zarepour has consistently justified monitoring users’ content by drawing parallels with general practices on international platforms, such as preventing the dissemination of child pornography or racist content.
The recent law clearly invalidates this justification. It appears that policymakers, by embedding legal mechanisms, will have the capability to intrude upon users’ privacy and monitor their content at any time and in any situation, without needing the cooperation of domestic platforms.
In such an environment, not only because of general crimes like child pornography, which is condemned by all cultures and is among the highest offenses under international law, but also for expressing their opinions or preferences on hijab and modesty.
How the Government Can Access and Use a Huge Amount of Data from Various Sources
The bill on modesty and hijab also has a provision in Article 61 that requires all national agencies that have any kind of database to share this data online with “Faraaja” (Command of the Islamic Republic’s Law Enforcement or the former Law Enforcement Force).
This includes a wide range of governmental and non-governmental agencies, such as civil registration, the central bank, employee information of non-governmental institutions, and insurance organizations. This is a huge amount of data that can expose the citizens to the government’s policing and security actions, and put them at risk of being harassed or persecuted.
At the same time, this volume of data and metadata can provide a competitive advantage in any tech-driven economic activity for governmental and quasi-governmental organizations (a combination of private and public sectors), which are typically affiliated with the armed forces, especially the Revolutionary Guards, rendering them unrivaled in this regard.
We should remember that the digital economy is not limited to technology and knowledge-based companies. It covers a wide range of economic activities that use data and metadata to improve their performance and reach their customers.
Final word
The bill on modesty and hijab will have deep and lasting effects on the whole society, but it is women who will suffer the most from its consequences.
Women are prohibited from freely participating in cyberspace. It will disregard their choice of clothing and personal freedoms, and even invade their private lives with the government’s ethical ideas and motivations.
The bill will also impose heavy fines and penalties on women who support or practice optional hijab, which many women cannot afford to pay, especially in the current economic situation. In this regard, the “Hijab and Modesty” bill, at its operational level, transforms the use of optional hijab, and even the struggle for it, into a class issue. Under its religious facade, this plan sends a clear message: if you want optional hijab, pay the price for it.
Sections of this plan that hold owners of small and large businesses accountable for the attire of their employees, images used on social networks, and their audiences, can further polarize society. It may further pit individuals against each other, intensifying divisions within society.
All of this, combined with the obstruction of the free flow of creative ideas, the closing of dialogue channels, and limited access to free information, indicates the profound and irreversible societal impacts that the implementation of this bill will have on society.
