Can International Law Protect the Women of Iran?
The Iranian government has been the source of media attention in recent years for their use of “Morality Police,”[1] a government sponsored group which has quieted the resistance against Iran’s oppressive laws governing women’s attire.[2] Women in Iran have been forced to wear hijabs, veils, chador, manteau and dark-colored trousers in public since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which marked the rise of the country’s current Muslim religious government.[3] Recently, in April 2023, the Iranian government began using surveillance cameras to identify and penalize women who violate the country’s hijab laws.[4] The Iranian Morality Police have punished those who fight against these laws, with punishment ranging from issuing a warning to arresting individuals.[5] In some instances, their punishment against women has been fatal; in 2022, a young woman died following a physical assault by the Morality Police.[6]
States have always relied on moral regulation during formation, and state forms are legitimized by a particular moral ethos.[7] It is not a surprise that morality is involved in the creation of laws, as they are written by legislators, with the goal of creating a better society for all within it; but the issue of morality policing arises when the government wields its power to suppress and punish a specific group of people who wish not to follow their moral guidelines. These practices raise the question of whether international tribunals may create protection for Iranian girls from the attempted forceful submission to the government’s moral compass of how women should present themselves in public.
Iranian practices have been openly condemned by United Nations (UN) member states and intergovernmental bodies. Recently, a group of UN Human Rights Council experts described Iranian laws allowing the punishment of women and girls who fail to adhere to the nation’s hijab laws as a form of gender apartheid.[8] Further, the United States government issued a September 2022 press statement condemning the actions of Iran’s Morality Police and announcing sanctions against Iran for human rights violations.[9] If a case were brought against Iran for the offenses of the Iranian Morality Police, these statements provide guidance on how the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may view Iran’s behavior as violating UN human rights conventions.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC), adopted by the UN in 1966, guarantees the protection of human rights within member states, ensuring every human is afforded inherent dignity.[10] Article 3 of the ICESC requires signing states to “ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth.”[11] Iran ratified this treaty in 1975,[12] yet continues to sanction the legalized suppression of the women within their borders. Outside of action from the UN Security Council, UN conventions such as the ICESC have weak enforcement mechanisms if a signing country violates its provisions.[13]
The issue remains if the Security Council will utilize international tribunals to determine if Iran’s use of Morality Police violate any UN Conventions or Resolutions. This blog post urges a UN member state such as the United States to request the UN step in. The United States must insist that the human rights of all people are protected equally across the globe, and that the actions of Iran’s Morality Police are in violation of such protection.
Maya Rodgers is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLVII.
[1] See Somayeh Malekian, Iran resumes infamous ‘morality police’ to enforce mandatory hijab law, ABC NEWS (July 17, 2023), https://abcnews.go.com/International/iran-resumes-infamous-morality-police-enforce-mandatory-hijab/story?id=101332994.
[2] See Adam Zeidan, morality police, Britannica (Aug 16, 2023), https://www.britannica.com/topic/morality-police.
[3] See Jomana Karadsheh and Adam Pourahmadi, In letter from prison, Narges Mohammadi outlines her fight for women, CNN (Oct. 6, 2023), https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/middleeast/iran-women-narges-mohammadi-letter-intl-cmd/index.html.
[4] See Astha Rajvanshi, Iran’s ‘Morality Police’ Return to Enforce Strick Hijab Laws, TIME (July 17, 2023), https://time.com/6295238/iran-morality-police-return/.
[5] See id.
[6] See id.
[7] See Steve Herbert, Morality in Law Enforcement: Chasing “Bad Guys” with the Los Angeles Police Dep’t, 30 Wiley Law and Society Association, 799, 799 (1996).
[8]Iran: Draft hijab law tantamount to ‘gender apartheid’ say rights experts, UNITED NATIONS NEWS (Sep. 1, 2023), https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1140307#:~:text=women%20in%20Iran.-,Iran%3A%20Draft%20hijab%20law%20tantamount%20to,gender%20apartheid'%20say%20rights%20experts&text=A%20group%20of%20UN%20Human,%2C%20or%20hijab%2C%20in%20public.
[9] The statement insisted that “[t]he Iranian government needs to end its systemic persecution of women and allow peaceful protest. The United States will continue to voice our support for human rights in Iran and hold those who violate them to account.” See Press Release, U.S. Dep’t State, Designating Iran’s Morality Police and Seven Officials for Human Rights Abuses in Iran (Sep. 22, 2022), https://www.state.gov/designating-irans-morality-police-and-seven-officials-for-human-rights-abuses-in-iran/.
[10] See G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI) at 2 (Dec. 16, 1966).
[11] See id. at Art. 3.
[12] See generally UN OHCHR, Status of Ratification Interactive Dashboard, available from https://indicators.ohchr.org.
[13] See generally UN Security Council, International Tribunals, available from https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/repertoire/international-tribunals.
This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.