Sex segregation in Iran

A bakery with two windows to separate male and female customers, Iran, 2021s. In this bakery the right side queue for men and left side queue for women. In Iran; Apart from bakeries, mosques, schools, libraries, music concerts, public transport and many other places are sex segregated.

In bakeries across Iran, men and women must stand in separate lines when buying bread. This is for prevention of touching or looking at Non-mahrams. According to Islamic rules (basis of the constitution) in Iran, looking Non-mahram females is haram (religiously forbidden) whether they are real or on TV (just live). Looking a Non-Mahram is likened to a poisonous bullet shot from Satan in Islamic Sharia.[11]

Buses are divided in two parts. Men are required to get on and off through the front door, while the back section and back doors are intended for women. Although bus services in Iran are sex-segregated, women are required to remain fully covered while inside the bus. In other cities such as in Mashhad, males and females were prevented from traveling on the same bus. Traditionally it is not acceptable in Iran for a man to sit or stand beside a non-mahram woman in public places.

In 2021, Tehran municipality announced that it has introduced female-only buses and minibuses inside the city. All the drivers are female and all the passengers should be female, no man is allowed to get on the bus.[12]

There are special wagons specific to females and, according to Metro laws, entrance of men in these wagons is illegal. Also according to Islamic penal codes, if a woman has an objection against a man, this is considered as female violence and has legal punishment.[13]

In 1979, officials calling the current situation of beaches as "idolatry" started to segregate beaches by sex. By the Caspian coasts, beaches were divided by sex. In the port of Bandare Anzali protesters continued to object for 3 months, but the governor Abolghasem Hosseinjani neglected them and divided the beach by 200 m segments named for men, for women and not suitable for swimming.[14]

The education system is single-sex so that boys and girls go to different schools. Governmental rules don't allow the mingling of boys and girls in kindergartens.[15]

After the revolution, Parliament made it compulsory for all women to observe the veil and for the first time rules prescribing the Hijab as proper attire for women were written into the law.[16]

According to the law, women's clothing should meet the following conditions:

• Women must cover their entire body except their faces and hands (from the wrist to the base of the fingers).
• Women who choose not to wear chador must wear a long overcoat or manteau. The manteau should be thick enough to conceal what is underneath, and should be loose-fitting.
• Women should not wear bright colored clothes or clothes that are adorned so that they may attract men's attention.[17] In recent years, many women have begun wearing more colorful dresses in public and this seems to be tolerated by the moral police. Correspondingly, Iranians have been arrested or received warnings over bad hijabi ("improper veiling").[18]

What follows is an excerpt from Ayatollah Khamenei's speech regarding bad-hijabi:

More than Iran's enemies need artillery, guns and so forth, they need to spread their anti-culture that leads to moral corruption. Instead of bombs, they now send miniskirts and short manteaus. If they arouse sexual desires in any given country, if they spread unrestrained mixing of men and women, and if they lead youth to behavior to which they are naturally inclined by instincts, there will no longer be any need for artillery and guns against that nation.[19]

Iranian women are not required to wear chadors. Some do so, as wearing it is a claim to respectability and Islamic piety. However, women may also fulfill the government requirements for modest dress by wearing a combination of a headscarf and manteau.

Men are also concerned with veiling. Like women, men are not allowed to exhibit their legs or upper torso. Although wearing ties or bow-ties is not prohibited, since they are considered signs of western influence, they are not acceptable as an official norm. Wearing earrings is prohibited for men.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all swimming pools are segregated by sex legally. During early years after the revolution, Komiteh morality police used to prevent wedding ceremonies with sex mingling in outdoor gardens.

Supporters of sex segregation generally claim that experience has shown that presence of women and girls in public places and parks has caused much harassment for them while female-only places result in safety of girls and women and protects them from the opposite sex harassment.[20]

Some concerts have been canceled in Iran because of mixed-gender seating during performance.

In different cities there are amusement parks where men are not allowed to enter. These women-only parks are protected spaces where women can remain out of reach of men.

"No entrance for men" sign on a gym in Iran, 2022

Men are not allowed to see women's sport events and vice versa.[21] Hosein Fekri, an official in sports affairs, in early years of Islamic revolution said: "We will create walls in any place women are doing sports in order to prevent men from watching even if it's a tennis yard".

The 2006 movie Offside is about the prohibition of women from the male-played sport of association football.

In 2019, after the death of Sahar Khodayari, Iranian authorities finally allowed select Iranian women to attend a football match in Iran's record 14-0 win against Cambodia for the first time since the Iranian Revolution.[22] However, in March 2022, Iranian women were again banned from attending a World Cup qualifier.[23]

Handshake between opposite sexes during sport events has always resulted in conflicts in Iran.[24] In 2023, an Iranian media objected Hassan Yazdani a famous wrestler for shaking hands with a non-Mahram at the game,[25] the scene which was censored by national TV channels.[26][27][28]

Mosques are sex-segregated and have different doors for each sex. As well as, religious committees for Muharram Mourning are sex-segregated.

Unsuccessful efforts have been made to run sex segregation in hospitals. Some women-only hospitals were constructed but were not successful. Men are prohibited to study in Obstetrics and Gynecology since Masoud Pezeshkian became Minister of Health.

Some women-only banks were constructed in different cities with women employees. After a period, men comprised most of the customers at these banks.

General Hosein Sajedi-nia said police officers will prevent skiers in Tehran ski reserves from immoral behaviours. Police are involved in enhancing sex segregation between male and female skiers.[29]

Even though most universities are not segregated, university students must sit apart from each other by their sexes. All the thing in university campus are segregated by sex such as restaurants, libraries, study rooms, etc.

Entrance doors of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran are segregated by sex since 2022.[30]

All university dormitories are unisex with exception of married students dormitories. Unisex dormitories (for either single or married students) can be male-only or female-only. As an example, Hafez university dormitory is one of the dormitories belonging to male students of University of Tehran while Fatemieh dormitory is one the dormitories belonging to female students of University of Tehran.[31]

Since the revolution it has been concepted a duty for civil police to execute Sharia among people. In 2012, Ahmadi-Moghaddam, current chief police, stated that "sex segregation is not our policy but when a man and woman are dancing in a garden the police interferes because the garden proprietor has plighted not to let sex mingling in a public place".[32] In 2022 images of Sardar Talaie, ex-police chief of Tehran in social media were issued showing him exercising in a mixed gym. A turmoil started among Iranian people why the ex-commander of civil police who was responsible for confronting and punishing mingling of sexes is doing sport in a mixed gym in Canada.[33]

Many cases of police action against sex mingling have been recorded. In 2015, police stopped a bus of tourists heading to the Maranjab Desert. All 32 passengers were arrested for sex mingling.[34]

In 2012, Sharia police arrested 45 boys and girls going mountain climbing in the suburb of Mashhad.[35] In 2016, police arrested 25 boys and girls with the average age of 25-35 who didn't have any familiar relationship and were together in a garden villa in Pardis County (around Tehran). The prosecutor convicted them of premarital sex and ordered to punish them.[36]