The necessity of presenting an amendment to the hijab bill by the government to the parliament

According to Ashura News, quoted by Mehr News Agency, Sajjad Lotfi, former secretary of the Fashion and Clothing Organizing Working Group, said: In the midst of the hustle and bustle of 1401, some people, even from the religious and revolutionary circles, said: What is all this pressure and insistence that women maintain the hijab for? Is it worth all this cost?! Just release the headscarf! In response, it was said that are you sure the problem is only the headscarf? And does it not spread to more than that? The reason for these recommendations, both then and now, could be lack of information or forgetfulness and negligence. The plan that has been laid out to change the lifestyle in Iran must be seen and analyzed as a process.

He continued: In Iran, the view of the West has gained strength since the middle of the Qajar era and the process of modernization with the coming to power of Reza Khan, and it deepened and expanded during the time of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. This process became more objective with the planning system that was crystallized in development programs. With the Islamic Revolution in 1979, this trend stopped and in some areas a new path was drawn and started; for example, in the political arena, a new trend was adopted with the new doctrine of "neither East nor West," or in the cultural arena, one of the evolutionary and distinctive cases compared to other countries was the policy of the style of clothing and the social obligation of the hijab as an Iranian-Islamic value. Of course, in some areas, the same previous trend - imitative policies - continued, and development programs, the seventh version of which is currently being implemented, led to its institutionalization in the country's political and administrative system.

The former secretary of the Fashion and Clothing Organization Working Group said: The Western lifestyle is the crystallization of Western civilization in various areas, especially culture and society; in the political-administrative system of the Islamic Republic, every area that is accompanied by the macro-trends of modernism, hedonism, and fluidity has manifested a component of the Western lifestyle, and wherever it has not accompanied these trends and has been based on a local approach to policymaking, it has had a different outcome. The change in women's clothing style has been evident since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, and with the passage of time, the dominance of Western clothing styles has increased.

He continued: This trend has also been effective in other areas of lifestyle: leisure and entertainment style, travel style, consumption style, friendship style (friendship with the opposite sex), marriage style (blind date), types of sexuality (white marriage), childbearing style (birth of children on specific dates, high rate of cesarean sections in Iran), parenting style (no children, few children), makeup and beauty style (sculpting, nail and eyelash extensions), and such.

Lotfi said: The changes that have occurred in the lifestyle of society have increased the gap between formal and informal culture and, consequently, formal and informal structures; one of these changes has been in the area of ​​clothing style and hijab, which has occurred in the informal culture layer. In official culture, the policy of social obligation of hijab has been dominant until recently, with the media conflict over the announcement of the hijab law, and the suspension of the aforementioned law in the Supreme National Security Council, there are signs that the official structure of the system is not implementing the policy of social obligation of hijab; other signs include the lack of reaction to the presence of Ms. Goli Emami (author) without a hijab at a public ceremony and the publication of a photo of official officials with her on social media, or the lack of reaction of officials of the Fajr 43 Film Festival to the handshake of two male and female actors at the opening.

He continued: Such actions have caused the aggressive discourse to advance; For example, a woman stripped naked at the Azad University of Sciences and Research (November 2024) and created a media wave on it (#Girl_of_Sciences_Research), holding a virtual and well-attended concert by Parasto Ahmadi in a semi-nude state at the Dirgchin Caravanserai in Qom (December 11, 2024), and publishing a nude picture of herself by Masi Alinejad (for the first time) and inviting Iranian women to strip naked (December 13, 2024).

The former secretary of the Fashion and Clothing Organizing Working Group said: Based on global macro trends, the issue of hijab and clothing style could have been included under the Western lifestyle years ago, but people and (legal) structures have put up cultural resistance in this regard; of course, this resistance can be broken and this issue can also join the Western lifestyle. The 1401 riots have played an accelerating role in this regard.

He added: After 1401, some officials made a miscalculation; that is, they thought that the social obligation of hijab was no longer possible. While during the 1401 unrest, more than 80 percent of the country's women did not join the pseudo-women's movement for freedom. So the second path must be taken; we can implement the social obligation of hijab in society through rational governance and respond to the need for covering up and dressing beautifully in Iranian society within local frameworks, distance ourselves from the declining trend of Western clothing styles, and this time complete another piece of the puzzle of the lifestyle of the modern Islamic civilization with maturity, openness, and open-mindedness.

Lotfi said: The Western clothing style is defined under the Western lifestyle; therefore, the issue of hijab and covering does not end here, and other events such as exposing oneself and nudity, public and widespread illicit and unconventional relationships between the two opposite sexes or even the two same sexes (homosexuality) are occurring, which are signs of a sexual revolution. This path has been taken by Western countries, and Western civilization is in great pain and on the brink of collapse for this reason; sometimes their sympathetic elites criticize, but since the main economic and media arteries are in the hands of supporters of sexual freedom, they do not get anywhere.

He continued: The emphasis of the new President of the United States of America in the inauguration ceremony that there are only two sexes in the country, namely men and women, indicates a clear deviation in a so-called civilized society to the point where the obvious must be reminded! Standing in the cultural embankment of the hijab means not being allowed to enter the next embankments, including nudity and body exposure, homosexuality, drinking alcohol, and....

The former secretary of the Fashion and Clothing Organization Working Group, referring to the proposed solutions, said: Taking an official stance against abnormalities in the public space; For example, highlighting the news of the dismissal of the Director General of Qom's Cultural Heritage due to a hypothetical concert, dealing with those who promote the lack of veiling, nudity, and body exposure and publicizing these negative measures, presenting an amendment to the hijab bill by the government to the parliament, and taking effective positive measures such as focusing on governing the style of clothing (fashion and clothing) are among the solutions that can be considered in this regard.

Lotfi said: With the arrival of the hot season, the situation of observing the hijab by some women will worsen significantly and will intensify as a result of the opposition's protests, whose presence in the real and virtual space is now serious, so the bipolarity of the hijab will increase.