ژورنال سایت خبری سیاسی ژورنال
English Journal is published on Fridays
PDF-English Journal-30November 2025-No39
On Monday 24 November, Mehdi Daneshmand, a cleric aligned with the Iranian government, said: “I wish some people were only unveiled. We no longer have unveiled women; we have shameless ones. Do not be shameless; do not wear your sleepwear in the street.”
These remarks – uttered in the path of their Prophet Mohammad and the bloody history of Islam – came just one day before 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a day devoted to combating suppression, discrimination and structural violence against women.
In the official discourse of the Islamic Republic, the female body is consistently portrayed as a source of “male deviation”. Within this religious logic, preventing men from sinning is supposedly guaranteed through women’s “modest” behaviour. This misogynistic worldview casts women as the agents of sin and men as creatures without self-control, as if the hearts and minds of men loyal to Islam resided solely in their genitals.
The key question is this: why do they label women’s unveiling as “shamelessness”? This is no accident. The aim is to incite men to violence against women and to legitimise state repression.
Controlling women’s bodies and criminalising their clothing choices form a central pillar of gender apartheid under the Islamic Republic. But here lies the glaring inconsistency: if compulsory hijab supposedly produces “modesty”, why has prostitution in Iran never been as widespread as under this regime? How is it that despite relentless policing of women’s bodies and dress, the sex trade has flourished under state structures and become a source of profit for networks of power?
Violence against women in the Islamic Republic is not accidental or merely cultural; it is a deliberate political and economic project. On the one hand, the state imposes fear and repression to maintain social obedience. On the other, by undermining women’s safety and driving vulnerable girls onto the streets, it fuels a lucrative cycle of sexual exploitation. This regime not only justifies violence against women but turns it into a tool of social control and a source of revenue. What has shaken this Islamic decay and begun to dry up this swamp of ignorance and brutality is the unified struggle of women and the majority of society. The fierce political and cultural battle led by women and men against the regime’s reactionary cultural order knows no bounds. This struggle still has much room to grow.
Editor: Patty Debonitas
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