Khamenei Defends Mandatory Hijab Amid Growing Pushback and Political Tensions
The Supreme Leader’s remarks come as conservative lawmakers pressure the judiciary over lax enforcement, and public defiance surges following Mahsa Amini’s death.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday offered a forceful defense of the mandatory hijab, responding to rising public noncompliance and intensifying criticism from hardline factions who accuse authorities of failing to uphold the Islamic Republic’s strict dress codes.
Khamenei’s comments came one day after more than half of Iran’s conservative-led parliament issued a rare public rebuke of the judiciary, faulting it for what they described as inadequate enforcement of compulsory headscarves.
The dispute underscores deepening divisions within Iran’s ruling establishment over how to confront growing societal resistance.
Fueling the controversy, Khamenei’s own office faced rare backlash last week from ultraconservative supporters after one of its affiliated newspapers published the photograph of an unveiled Iranian woman killed in the June war with Israel. The woman appeared wearing a baseball cap with her hair exposed — an image that hardliners said undermined the state’s commitment to Islamic dress codes.
“In the Islamic Republic, it has been shown that a Muslim woman, wearing the hijab and respecting the Islamic dress, can progress more than others in all areas and play an active role both in society and in her home,” Khamenei said during a meeting with a group of women.
He added that women had advanced “in many areas” under the post-1979 system that mandates modest dress.
Compulsory veiling became law after the Islamic Revolution that toppled the Shah in 1979, but enforcement has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years. Defiance surged dramatically after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was detained for allegedly violating hijab rules.
Her death triggered months of nationwide protests, during which hundreds were killed and thousands arrested, according to rights groups. Iranian authorities dismissed the unrest as foreign-orchestrated “riots.”
In 2023, parliament passed a bill that would have sharply increased penalties for women not wearing the hijab, but the government has refused to ratify it. President Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, has repeatedly argued that women “cannot be forced” to adhere to the dress code.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said in January that the bill had been shelved because it “could have had serious social consequences,” signaling the administration’s reluctance to escalate an issue already central to public anger.
As political factions continue to clash over enforcement mechanisms, widespread noncompliance across Iranian cities suggests that the debate over hijab — once considered a settled principle of the Islamic Republic — has become one of the most volatile challenges facing the country’s leadership.
