{"id":201828,"date":"2025-12-24T16:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/201828\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T16:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:32:06","slug":"theres-no-going-back-irans-women-on-why-they-wont-stop-flouting-dress-code-laws-violence-against-women-and-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/201828\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There\u2019s no going back\u2019: Iran\u2019s women on why they won\u2019t stop flouting dress code laws | Violence against women and girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the streets of Iran\u2019s capital, Tehran, young women are increasingly flouting the compulsory hijab laws, posting videos online that show them walking the streets unveiled. Their defiance comes more than three years after the killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman taken into custody by the \u201cmorality police\u201d for allegedly breaching the dress code rules. Her death led to the largest wave of popular unrest<\/a> for years in Iran and a crackdown by security services in response, with hundreds of protesters killed<\/a> and thousands injured.<\/p>\n

Under Iran\u2019s \u201chijab and chastity\u201d law<\/a>, which came into force in 2024, women caught \u201cpromoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing\u201d face severe penalties, including fines of up to \u00a312,500, flogging and prison sentences ranging from five to 15 years for repeat offenders.<\/p>\n

The authorities have also encouraged members of the public to become \u201chijab monitors<\/a>\u201d through a state-backed reporting platform that allows them to report women for alleged violations.<\/p>\n

In December, the country\u2019s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said the hijab was crucial \u201cto preserve the dignity of women and to restrain very strong and dangerous sexual urges<\/a>\u201d, heralding the start of a new push to enforce the dress code laws.<\/p>\n

Within days, the security forces intensified their hijab enforcement. The organisers of a popular marathon race in Kish Island, off the southern coast of Iran, were arrested and accused<\/a> of \u201cviolating public decency\u201d for allowing women to run unveiled.<\/p>\n

But speaking to the Guardian, women in Iran<\/a> say public opinion has shifted and even more women are open to flouting the dress code rules despite the increase in arrests and penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never needed Khamenei\u2019s permission, nor do we need it now. The scenes you are witnessing are because we do not care what he has to say,\u201d says Hoda*, a Tehran-based journalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are running out of water [referring to Iran\u2019s water shortage crisis<\/a>], there are growing labour protests and the war with Israel has left the administration weak. Hijab is an easy distraction while they deal with all these serious issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

If I wear a hijab now, I feel I\u2019m undoing all the sacrifices so many Iranians have madeShaghayegh, 22<\/p>\n

Although Hoda accepts that more women will be arrested, she says the Iranian authorities would avoid mass arrests because \u201clast time they did it, they looked like fools across the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Tehran, Golnar*, a visual artist, believes young Iranians will not return to previous norms. She recently filmed a police officer warning teenagers who were playing music; the group ignored him. She says the regime, weakened by war and sanctions, \u201cneeds good PR\u201d and cannot risk viral images of hijab arrests.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I have it in the back of my head that I will be at any time dragged into a van? Yes, I am not going to lie. But the plan is to push the boundaries collectively, so they can\u2019t break a few of us,\u201d says Golnar.<\/p>\n

Top left: Two friends talking outside a cultural centre in Tehran; top right: A woman stands on a table in a caf\u00e9 in Tehran to remove her headscarf in a symboilc gesture; bottom left: A woman looks towards a building opposite her house that was demolisehd by Israeli missile strikes in June 2025; bottom right: A woman strolls with her child around the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Tehran, Shaghayegh*, 22, pushes boundaries through an all-women motorcycle club. Women cannot obtain bike licences in Iran, yet her group rides weekly. \u201cThey have become very lax and don\u2019t stop us any more,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Shaghayegh says she no longer wears a headscarf off the bike. \u201cIf I wear a hijab now, I feel I\u2019m undoing all the sacrifices so many Iranians have made. There\u2019s no going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most viral videos come from Tehran, women in other provinces also report a shift in attitudes.<\/p>\n

Leyla*, a business owner in the central Iranian city of Shiraz, says she has never seen the city so energised. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s really hopeful to see. The fact that more and more women choose how they dress is exactly what makes them braver. These visuals are a proof of our bravery and not the reform that many pro-regime folks are pointing to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two girls view Picasso\u2019s Guernica at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, where a large number of the artist\u2019s original works are on display. Many of these pieces are being exhibited for the first time<\/p>\n

In Iran\u2019s northern Kurdistan region, Zerin*, a student says \u201cmorality police\u201d presence is minimal but broader targeting continues. \u201cIn Kurdistan we are targeted by the authorities for our Kurdish identity and hijab isn\u2019t the only concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear when they start enforcing hijab in Tehran, they will use that as an excuse to make mass arrests of our men and women simply over our identity, and make up national security and spy charges like they have been doing before and after Mahsa Amini\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skylar Thompson, deputy director of Human Rights Activists in Iran, says the authorities lack the capacity to enforce hijab consistently and are, perhaps, reluctant to confront women amid domestic and international pressures. \u201cThe political, security, and economic climate is fragile and even a small provocation could trigger new unrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Names have been changed<\/p>\n

The photographs in this article were taken in Tehran in November and December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the streets of Iran\u2019s capital, Tehran, young women are increasingly flouting the compulsory hijab laws, posting videos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-201828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}