The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for RCDW-LAW-1

Dec. 11, 2024, 11:26 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In Iran, where Dr. Rajaei-Rad lives, hijab laws mandate women to cover their hair in public" (para 4).
Dec. 6, 2024, 10:51 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women, in France's state-run schools, the education minister has said. The rule will be applied as soon as the new school year starts on 4 September. France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws. Wearing a headscarf has been banned since 2004 in state-run schools" (para 1-4). "In 2010, France banned the wearing of full face veils in public which provoked anger in France's five million-strong Muslim community" (para 10). "It has been updating the law over the years to reflect its changing population,...more
Dec. 6, 2024, 10:42 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"They are required to take a male chaperone with them on journeys of more than 72 km (45 miles) and follow a dress code" (para 7).
Dec. 5, 2024, 6:07 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Iranian state has said that it plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the mandatory hijab laws that require women to cover their heads in public. The opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She said the clinic will offer 'scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal'" (para 1-2). "[T]he idea of a clinic to treat women who did not comply with hijab laws is ‘neither Islamic and nor is it aligned with Iranian law’" (para 5). "The announcement...more
Dec. 4, 2024, 4:53 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Harrowing first-hand accounts of women being dragged from the streets of Iran and detained by security services have emerged as human rights groups say country’s hijab rules have been brutally enforced since the country’s drone strikes on Israel on 13 April" (par. 1).
Nov. 16, 2024, 4:24 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, IIP-PRACTICE-1, IIP-LAW-1

"Tala Raassi, an Iranian-American fashion designer who knows firsthand the brutality of the regime: At 16, she was arrested and given 40 lashes for wearing a T-shirt and miniskirt at a private party" (para 16).
Nov. 16, 2024, 4:04 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"[A]s womens aren't allowed to ride in metro if they do not wear Hijab. This move appears to be part of a pattern of government efforts to force Iranian public bodies to take greater responsibility for enforcing the hijab" (Para 2). "The government said on Saturday that it planned to install cameras in streets and use existing traffic camera CCTV to detect women not complying with the dress code, and that fines would be imposed" (Para 8) "The judiciary has said it is willing to impose fines of 1m tomans (£190) on women taken to court for not wearing the hijab. Cars in which women are not wearing the hijab...more
Nov. 16, 2024, 4:03 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"You see it as soon as you land at the airport: posters telling women to keep their headscarves on. They're everywhere in Iran; in malls, restaurants, billboards above main highways, and even rest stops in between cities. The hijab remains the official law in Iran" (Para 1).
Nov. 16, 2024, 3:39 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"Just weeks before 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody after being arrested for failing to wear a hijab in public, an Iranian official announced the country’s law enforcement agencies would use facial recognition software to identify women who fail to follow the strict dress rule" (para 1). " [Iran's]. theocratic government and its hijab requirements ... have been in place since the 1970s" (para 2). "The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, announced in an interview that the government was planning to use surveillance technology against women in public places following a new decree signed by the country’s hardline president,...more
Nov. 16, 2024, 3:39 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, IIP-PRACTICE-1

"Iran’s judiciary chief threatened to prosecute 'without mercy' women who appear in public unveiled, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei’s warning came on the heels of an interior ministry statement on Thursday that reinforced the government’s mandatory hijab law. 'Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with [our] values,' Ejei was quoted as saying by several news sites. Those 'who commit such anomalous acts will be punished' and would be 'prosecuted without mercy,' he said, without saying what the punishment would entail. Ejei, Iran’s chief justice, said law enforcement officers were 'obliged to refer obvious crimes and any kind of abnormality that is against the religious law and occurs in...more
Nov. 1, 2024, 10:37 a.m.
Countries: Sudan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, IIP-LAW-1, DTCP-PRACTICE-1

"The Public Order Act of 1996 imposed conservative Islamic social codes which restricted women’s movement, work and study. Women could be imprisoned or flogged for seemingly trivial transgressions – such as wearing western-style jeans" (para 10).
Oct. 22, 2024, 11:02 a.m.
Countries: Iraq
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The education ministry has stipulated that the veil should not be compulsory in schools. However, the 2005 Iraqi constitution states that Islam is the official state religion and should be the 'foundation source' of legislation" (para 14).
Oct. 16, 2024, 3:21 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"[A]s womens aren't allowed to ride in metro if they do not wear Hijab. This move appears to be part of a pattern of government efforts to force Iranian public bodies to take greater responsibility for enforcing the hijab" (Para 2). "The government said on Saturday that it planned to install cameras in streets and use existing traffic camera CCTV to detect women not complying with the dress code, and that fines would be imposed" (Para 8) "The judiciary has said it is willing to impose fines of 1m tomans (£190) on women taken to court for not wearing the hijab. Cars in which women are not wearing the hijab...more
Oct. 16, 2024, 3:19 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"You see it as soon as you land at the airport: posters telling women to keep their headscarves on. They're everywhere in Iran; in malls, restaurants, billboards above main highways, and even rest stops in between cities. The hijab remains the official law in Iran" (Para 1).
Oct. 16, 2024, 3:10 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, IIP-PRACTICE-1, IIP-LAW-1

"Tala Raassi, an Iranian-American fashion designer who knows firsthand the brutality of the regime: At 16, she was arrested and given 40 lashes for wearing a T-shirt and miniskirt at a private party" (para 16).
Oct. 16, 2024, 11:13 a.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"The letter, confirmed by economy ministry spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said the female employees were not allowed to work until further notice because some had not adhered to the administration's interpretation of Islamic dresscode for women" (para 2, 17). "The Taliban have banned girls from middle school and high school, barred women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms" (para 37).
Feb. 11, 2024, 3:17 p.m.
Countries: Switzerland
Variables: RCDW-PRACTICE-2, RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"Switzerland has proposed a £900 fine for anyone covering their face under a 'burqa ban' law. The draft law was today sent to parliament by the Swiss government and includes several exemptions, including suggesting waiving the ban on aircraft, in diplomatic premises and places of worship" (para 1-2). "Also, under the draft law, masks deemed necessary to protect oneself while exercising fundamental rights to expression and assembly would be allowed as long as authorities approved and public order was assured" (para 5). "Following consultations, the cabinet watered down calls to anchor it in the criminal code and fine offenders up to 10,000 francs" (para 9). "Full face veils were banned...more
Jan. 22, 2024, 6:37 p.m.
Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1, RCDW-LAW-2

"Women have stopped being issued driver's licenses and are ordered to cover their whole bodies in western city Herat, Afghanistan's third largest" (para 2). "Last week the authorities ordered them to cover fully in public, preferably with a burqa" (para 24).
Jan. 21, 2024, 10:39 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"A quick look at Iran’s constitution concerning the hijab reveals the erroneous interpretation—and how the regulation of women’s appearance is built into the laws and constitution of Iran. According to Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code, failure to appear without hijab in public is punishable by imprisonment from 10 days to two months or up to 74 lashes. So whether an entity dedicated to enforcing the law—in this case, the morality police—exists, the compulsory hijab is a constitutional mandate" (para 4) "On Dec 5, an entire amusement park was shut down when a female employee showed up to work without a headscarf. In another incident, a member of parliament...more
Jan. 21, 2024, 10:36 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"An Iranian woman has been jailed for ten years for 'encouraging prostitution' after removing her headscarf at a protest" (para 1).
Dec. 20, 2023, 11:14 a.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"A senior Iranian official said this weekend that Iran had abolished the morality police, the state media reported, after months of protests set off by the death of a young woman who was detained by the force for supposedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress laws"(para 1). "Shadi Sadr, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought for women’s rights in Iran for decades, said on Twitter that scrapping the morality police would not be big news because 'hijab is still compulsory and enforced by other means such as expulsion from university or school'"(para 13). "Abolishing the morality police could have a major effect on the state’s ability to control...more
Nov. 22, 2023, 5:13 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"[The school rulebook] suggests that if a female student is Muslim, she must wear jilbab. That is what's implied" (2). "[The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] issued a national regulation that implies and has been interpreted by officials and schools around the country to require all female Muslim primary and secondary school students to wear a jilbab as part of their school uniform" (5). "[T]he 2014 regulation has been understood in many regencies and provinces as requiring a headscarf for all Muslim girls" (7). "[A] 2001 regulation on Islamic dress, which remains in force, requires female Muslim civil servants to wear a jilbab in addition to their officially prescribed...more
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:57 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The Islamists did not advocate to make the hijab mandatory; no law or regulation required women and girls to wear the hijab" (19).
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:33 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"February 3, 2021, Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, and Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas signed a decree that allows any student or teacher to choose what to wear in school, with or without 'religious attributes'" (12). This law is not enforced (MV-coder comment). "[The Ministry of Education under Daoed Joesoef issued a decree that] implicitly banned schoolgirls from wearing the hijab as it did not include any type of headscarf as a choice for girls’ uniforms in any of the categories" (21). "All schoolgirls in Padang, including Christians and Buddhists, from kindergarten to high school, were required to wear a jilbab" (48).more
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:32 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In March 2005, Article 10 of the decree [issued by Mayor Fauzi Bahar of Padang on Muslim attire] states that, 'Muslim students at primary schools, Islamic madrasah, junior high schools, and senior high schools must wear Muslim/Muslimah attire; non-Muslims should adopt [long skirts for girls and long pants for boys]'" (28). "In August 2005, Gamawan Fauzi, the governor of West Sumatra, issued a circular calling on all Muslims to wear Islamic attire; this included women and girls in all public spaces... Also, in 2005, South Kalimantan Governor Rudy Ariffin issued a decree requiring women civil servants to wear a hijab and long skirt" (29).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:14 p.m.
Countries: Iran
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In the 1930s, the then-ruler, Reza Shah, prohibited women from wearing the hijab, and police were ordered to forcibly remove headscarves from women wearing them. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, in the early 1980s, Iranian authorities imposed a mandatory dress code requiring all women to wear the hijab, including in workplaces" (107-108).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:12 p.m.
Countries: Germany
Variables: ERBG-PRACTICE-1, RCDW-LAW-1

"Several German states continue to ban teachers and civil servants from wearing niqab at work" (107).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:11 p.m.
Countries: Germany
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"The amendment prohibited teachers in public schools from wearing visible items of religious clothing and symbols, except those that exhibited Christian and Western educational and cultural values or traditions" (106).
Nov. 22, 2023, 12:05 p.m.
Countries: France
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In 2010, France enacted a national law banning the wearing of full-face veils anywhere in public... The law made it a criminal offense to wear clothing intended to cover the face in public, punishable by a fine of up to €150 (US$210) and/or a compulsory 'citizenship course.' The law also criminalized coercing someone else into covering their face, punishable by up to a year in prison and a €30,000 ($40,950) fine, or two years in prison and a €60,000 fine if the person coerced is a minor. The law entered into force in April 2011" (104-105).
Nov. 22, 2023, 11:48 a.m.
Countries: France
Variables: RCDW-LAW-1

"In 2010, France enacted a national law banning the wearing of full-face veils anywhere in public" (103).