‘This Revolution Is Still Alive’: A Growing Number Of Iranian Women Defy The Hijab Law After Monthslong Protests

Eadio Farda

March 8th 2023

Assal appeared in public for months without a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, in solidarity with the antiestablishment protests that rocked Iran.

Even as the demonstrations that erupted in September have waned in recent weeks following a deadly state crackdown, the Tehran resident has continued to flout the country’s hijab law, in a direct challenge to Iran’s clerical regime.

“I want to demonstrate to [the authorities] that this revolution is still alive, and our people will [fight] them with any means they can,” the 32-year-old obstetrician, who requested that her full name not be used for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

“When I walk past [security officers in the street] without a hijab, it’s not easy. My whole body shakes. But I will never back down. I will keep protesting,” she added.

Tanya, another Tehran resident, said women are removing their head scarves to take a stand against the clerical establishment that has deprived them of their most basic rights, including the right to choose how they appear in public.

“Women see it as their absolute right, a right they have been denied for years,” said the psychologist, who also requested that her full name not be used. “I’m protesting the status quo.”

Assal and Tanya are among a growing number of Iranian women who are appearing in public with their hair uncovered, including in the streets of major cities as well in restaurants, cafes, and shopping malls. They have been emboldened by the anti-regime protests in which women played a major role.

The demonstrations erupted following the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini soon after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the hijab law.

The protests began as a rebuke against the brutal enforcement of the hijab law but soon snowballed into one of the most sustained anti-regime demonstrations against Iran’s theocracy, with protesters calling for an end to clerical rule and demanding their social and political freedoms.

During the demonstrations, women and girls removed and burned their head scarves. With the protests subsiding after a state crackdown that left over 500 dead, women are venting their anger through acts of civil disobedience.

Tehran-based women’s rights activist Leyla Mirghafari said the antiestablishment protests have intensified women’s opposition to the hijab, a key pillar of the Islamic republic.

Many Iranians have had enough of the “unjust, repressive, and anti-women law,” Mirghafari, who was arrested in 2018 for removing her head scarf in public, told RFE/RL.

‘The Youth Are Fearless’

The hijab became compulsory two years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The law requires women and girls over the age of 9 to wear a head scarf in public.

Many women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable, including exposing more of their hair and wearing smaller and more colorful head scarves.

In 2018, dozens of women protested the hijab law by standing on utility boxes in major cities and waving their head scarves, in unprecedented acts of defiance.

Under President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate who was in office from 2013 to 2021, the enforcement of the hijab law was relaxed. But under ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s morality police have become increasingly active and violent in enforcing what the authorities have called the “complete hijab.”