Iranian linked to hijab crackdown is director of British migrant charity

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A key figure in the Iranian regime, who helped to launch a crackdown on women’s clothing that has led to widespread protests and dozens of deaths, is also the director of a British company providing immigration advice.

Saied Reza Ameli is secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, which drew up the tougher guidance on the compulsory wearing of the hijab. He is also director of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which is approved by the UK government to provide legal advice. Ameli has called for all British school and work uniforms to include a hijab option.

Ameli, 60, said after the Supreme Council published the guidelines on “chastity and hijab” in 2019 that they were needed for “social health, protection of the family”. He claimed foreign television shows were designed to “weaken chastity and hijab”.

Ameli was a founder of the IHRC in 1997. He obtained a doctorate in the sociology of communication at Royal Holloway University of London in 2001. His registration with Companies House says he lives in England. In 2006 he was co-author of a book about the hijab and British women, based on research by the IHRC. Its recommendations to the government included a national policy incorporating the hijab into work and school uniforms and having “women-only spaces in public places”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iranian-linked-to-hijab-crackdown-is-director-of-british-migrant-charity-7729fcrkp