
Gosht-e Ershad: Mandatory Hijab or Imposition of Power by the Ruling Class
When ideology penetrates into the core of truth, we witness the emergence of phenomena that demand deep contemplation independent of preconceptions. Laws and their enforcement are used by the mechanisms and power relations to control and monitor individuals in society, which in itself is a source of numerous challenges and conflicts.
In fact, the implementation of laws by the police is a form of displaying the violence of the ruling class and exchanging this violence with a law that finds its basis in ideology and societal norms. When an individual is introduced by police institutions as an enemy of society and morality, it is not likely that they will be met with a military response at first, because the collective consciousness of society reacts to police violence with a kind of irrational avoidance, and the negative struggle of individuals in some cases becomes the opposite point of origin for social subjects. In this context, government enforcement institutions first remove the enemy from the scene of civil rights and create social cohesion in a form of harmony and embodiment that is accepted by the ruling class, and anything else is seen as an enemy of society.
What we are facing under the title of managing chastity and public chastity is exactly a form of suppressing discourse that is trying to break free from the domination of all aspects of life by a dominant discourse.
In the midst of this, the female body is in the position of the most submissive and comfortable place for the exercise of power and control by the dominant discourse, which uses an ideology-based morality to legitimize its suppression of its own system. The political system, through surveillance and control of the most personal aspects of people’s lives under its rule, seeks to expand its control and exercise power over all aspects of people’s lives in order to maintain its dominance and conceal its inefficiency in other areas. This results in critical thinking being replaced with passivity and submission, as the system strives to maintain its power and portray those who oppose it as sterile and submissive.
In this order, the political monopoly of the body system takes shape with all its characteristics in a kind of discourse that seeks to dominate individuals in all aspects. To address the issue of inclusion, consider the following phrases:
“We live in an Islamic country”, “Earthquake is a divine punishment”, “Corruption, immorality, and burden on women and girls lead to the descent of divine punishment”, “Tehran, waiting for an earthquake”, “The plan for hijab and moral security will be implemented more seriously this year”.
Organizing the modern system of government discipline and control by establishing a high-level relationship between phenomena leads to the interpretation of a concept called public morality and paves the way for control, supervision, and enforcement of violence by the ruling class, and in some cases unconsciously legitimizes it in the minds of society.
This approach, even if it does not lead to success in action, but in terms of controlling personal ownership, it is the most significant sign of individual civil identity, which is the body, and at the level of language, it is subject to obedience. Because the government gives itself the power and right to control institutions for the preservation of social cohesion – which it itself has created and strives to stabilize – to control bodies and cover them, which, through the discourse of patriarchy and a combination of ideological interpretations regarding the view of women and the female body, directly affects women.
We are all familiar with the words “invisible control”, speed control cameras on roads and highways, surveillance cameras in organizations and companies, etc. All of them share the common purpose of seeing and being seen. Being seen is necessary for control and monitoring, which is often applied in an invisible manner. But imagine if an institution is established by the government to take on the responsibility of seeing, relieving men from the burden, and taking the initiative to control. In this way, we are faced with the legitimate and legal phenomenon of “seeing” in order to protect society from collapse and prevent falling into the abyss of decadence and moral corruption. This type of seeing brings double pleasure; the sadistic pleasure of exerting power and forcing change in clothing styles, and the visual pleasure of discovering the erotic attractions of the female body for the purpose of suppression. Therefore, a form of pleasure-seeking and suppressive abstraction is involved in encoding the style of life and the clothing of women – as a means of
In this hierarchical control system, similar to a multi-power system, it operates through a network of actions. We see that there are women who, despite not fitting into the definitions and frameworks of ideology in terms of lifestyle and clothing, still support the surveillance and control of government institutions. This not only shows a lack of legitimacy in the control system, but also reveals systematic hypocrisy in body politics.
On the other hand, the power system indulges in its own dual pleasure – as mentioned above – and disregards the role of men in society, reducing them to mere spectators influenced by desires to see. Its aim is to guide society towards happiness by eliminating these desires.
Nationality discrimination requires considering the power system as a whole, which strives to control and monopolize bodies, pleasures, and subsequently legitimize the power structures in a way that the only path to human happiness passes through the barriers of the ruling class.
With such an attitude, it will no longer be surprising if the government’s efforts to prevent natural disasters and protect against earthquakes are titled as “Guidance and Moral Security Plan”.


