Mohammad-Amir Ghodoosi's Lecture: 'A Philosophy-of-Law Perspective on the Hijab Bill'

On December 22, 2024, at the invitation of the Academic Association of Jurisprudence and Foundations of Islamic Law at the University of Tehran, Dr. Mohammad-Amir Ghodoosi delivered a 70-minute lecture examining the Family Protection through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab Act from the perspectives of philosophy of law and public law. In his talk, he argued that due to the conflation of public and private matters in this law and its departure from the core functions of a neutral state, the law is morally indefensible. He also assessed it as ineffective from a consequentialist and pragmatic standpoint, explaining that such approaches, in addition to increasing aversion to religious hijab, will lead to the spread of hypocrisy and dissimulation in society and, ultimately, the defamation and vilification of devout segments of the population.

In closing, Dr. Ghodoosi, citing certain examples, noted that even from a jurisprudential and intra-religious perspective, there is disagreement among jurists regarding the scope of religious hijab.

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Audio of Mohammad-Amir Ghodoosi's Lecture Titled "A Philosophy-of-Law Perspective on the Hijab Bill"

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* Images have been colorized using artificial intelligence.

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After the founder of the Islamic Republic, less than a month after the victory of the revolution on March 6, 1979, at the Fayziyeh School in Qom and in a gathering of clerics, pointed to the necessity of establishing compulsory hijab in government offices, stating:

"Islamic ministries should not be places of sin. Naked women should not come into Islamic ministries; women should go, but with hijab. There is no obstacle to them going; they should work, but with religious hijab, observing religious considerations."

A large number of schoolgirls, university students, and working women, predominantly from the educated middle class, took to the streets on March 8, 1979, which coincided with International Women's Day, to commemorate the day and to protest the attempt to establish compulsory hijab. They chanted:

"Death to reactionism" "Freedom is universal / Neither Eastern nor Western" "We did not make a revolution / To go backwards" "At the dawn of freedom / The place of women's rights is empty"

Numerous images of this march (which was repeated in the following days) were recorded. But these two particular photos from the events of that day have gained considerable fame and have been seen more than others. In these two photos, Maliheh Nikjoumand, known by her stage name Shideh Rahmani, a theater actress, having climbed onto a minibus to protest and chant slogans against compulsory hijab, is engaged in a heated, protesting conversation with a male cleric.

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