The Iranian government has announced plans to open a ‘treatment clinic’ for the women who refuse the mandatory hijab laws which says women should cover their heads in public.

As per the Guardian report, Mehri Talebi Darestani, head of the Women and Family Department at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has declared the setting up a hijab removal treatment clinic. The clinic will provide scientific and psychological treatment for the women who refuse to wear hijab.

In response to the announcement, Iranian women and human rights groups have expressed their anger and dissatisfaction. A UK-based Iranian journalist Sima Sabet who was recently targeted for an assassination attempt called the move “shameful,” adding, “The idea of setting up clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are isolated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology.”

The announcement of the establishment of a ‘treatment clinic’ was condemned by many including the Iranian human rights lawyer Hossein Raeesi. Criticising the idea, Hossein said that setting up a clinic to treat women who defy the hijab rule is “neither Islamic nor aligned with Iranian law.”

Hossein further added that it is very distressing that the announcement came from the Women and Family Department at the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which operates under the direct authority of Islamic Leader Ali Khamenei.

The announcement came after the arrest of a female student in Iran who protested against the hijab law by stripping down her clothes outside the University campus.

Reports say a student at Islamic Azad University in Tehran was harassed by members of the Basij paramilitary force. They allegedly tore her headscarf and clothes. In protest, the student took off her remaining clothes and sat outside in her underwear before being arrested.