Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Research and development in criminal law and criminology

Normative Analysis of the Crisis in Criminal Confrontation with Non-Observance of the Islamic Hijab

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Firouz Mahmoudi Janaki 1
Mohammadali Rajab 2
1 Associate Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD student in Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jclc.2025.2052234.1158
Abstract
The failure to observe the Islamic hijab by women has been a significant issue within the penal system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, gradually escalating over the past four decades and reaching a critical stage today. Criminal policy has consistently been one of the main pillars of this confrontation, and with the events of the past decade—especially the unrest of the last three years—this confrontation has inevitably intensified. This article does not focus on the foundations of criminalization of such delinquency, nor on its validity or invalidity, nor on field data collection through a penological or criminological assessment. Instead, it centers on a normative analysis of the status of the crime of not observing the Islamic hijab within the framework of the concepts and structures of criminal law. The aim is to demonstrate how the burden of political tensions and ideological demands imposed on penal concepts and structures may lead to a crisis in the penal system when the structural and normative requirements and elements of criminal “law” are undermined. Accordingly, this analysis is not based solely on the technicalities of criminal law but develops a comprehensive perspective on the entire criminal policy of the Islamic Republic in confronting this phenomenon. It provides a normative assessment of this policy within the context of the concepts and structures of criminal law, highlighting how the dysfunction of these mechanisms and structures has laid the groundwork for the emergence of the crisis. Therefore, the article reviews the status of criminal policy regarding non-observance of the Islamic hijab over the past four decades (first section), examines its relationship with the normative requirements and structures of criminal law (second section), and finally offers a normative analysis of this dysfunction (third section). It concludes by presenting solutions for future decisions within the criminal system (summary and conclusion).
Keywords
Hijab
Rule of Law
Police
Authoritarianism
Subjects
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Research and development in criminal law and criminology
Volume 1, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
March 2025
Pages 333-366