Return of the Hijab Issue to the Political Agenda in Iran

In stark contrast to the promise of the Guardian Council, Iran’s candidate-vetting body, that all women, including those not wearing a hijab, had the right to vote in the March 1 elections, Iranian authorities, post-elections, appear to have started a new, violent phase of enforcement of the mandatory hijab. This phase has led to interesting reactions from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who must have authorized the new morality campaign yet has criticized its violent enforcement, and the head of the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the morality police, who has claimed his organization is not part of the new campaign and urged the police not to deal too harshly with women not wearing a hijab. While there does appear to be a new plan calling for stricter, even coercive enforcement, the overwhelming body of editorial opinion and expression from notable security and religious figures emphasizes caution and lack of support for a coercive approach. Whether this is sincere or a consensus tactical stance designed to make it easier to transition into a harsher approach to hijab enforcement, while tamping down criticism and avoiding provoking confrontation, remains to be seen. The new campaign has not yet provoked anti-regime demonstrations, but another round of protests like Iran’s 2022 protests cannot be ruled out.

• April 19: BBC Persian reported a new and violent phase of enforcement of Iran’s hijab law has begun.
• April 19: Mehdi Fazaeli, a member of the Secretariat of the Office of the Supreme Leader, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, claimed Khamenei said: “Not wearing the hijab is not only religiously prohibited but is also politically prohibited. However, the enemy is plotting, and we too must have plans. Nothing must be done without proper planning.” Fazaeli also claimed: “Recently, some officials have received warnings because of their engagement in unplanned activities.”
• April 21: Hard-line Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari, in an editorial quoted by centrist Asr-e Iran, admonished Fazaeli, whose expressed opinions run contrary to Kayhan’s editorial line, for acting as Khamenei’s spokesperson and emphasized the supreme leader is fully capable of communicating his messages to the public.
• April 21: Mohammad-Hossein Taheri Akardi, the secretary of the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, commenting on reportedly violent enforcement of the hijab law, said, as quoted by centrist Fararu News:
  • “In April 2023, the president established the Headquarters for Hijab and Chastity, headed by Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi. The Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is one of the institutions comprising the Headquarters for Hijab and Chastity. With regard to the hijab issue, the portfolio was transferred from our organization to the new organization, and until now, we have not been asked to contribute to the Nour Plan.” Akardi’s statements concerning which institutions are involved in enforcement of the hijab law cannot be independently verified as open sources provide conflicting information.
  • “The Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is engaged in cultural and educational activities. The Nour Plan, however, is engaged in security work, along with the Command of the Law Enforcement Forces. I have, however, asked them not to deal harshly with those they arrest. These individuals should be introduced to the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice so we can deal with them through educational and cultural work.”
  • Akardi also claimed videos of attacks against women currently circulating are from 2023.
• April 22: Hossein Ansarian, a professor at the Theological Seminary in Qom, addressing the crowd at the Imamzadeh Saleh mosque in Tehran, dedicated some of his sermon to the hijab issue. According to Jamaran News, the mouthpiece of the family of the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ansarian said: “Let the path of faith remain open to all people, and do not create obstacles in their path to God. Do not anger the people, and don’t pressure them, as nobody becomes religious through force. Do not prevent women who aren’t wearing a hijab or who do not sufficiently abide by the hijab law from attending religious ceremonies, such as the one today. Let them come, hear the words of God, and be converted. These women are good, and they will even get better in the future.”
• April 22: In an interview with Jamaran News, Moeen al-Din Saeedi, a parliamentarian from Chabahar in Sistan and Baluchistan province, said: “In the recent elections, everyone, regardless of the garb they were wearing, was allowed to participate,” referencing the Guardian Council’s emphasis that women without a hijab were allowed to vote. “Why are those women now considered bad?” Saeedi added that economic issues rather than the hijab issue should be the government’s priority and concluded: “Certain officials are experts in provoking the people and intentionally polarize society. This is beneath the dignity of the Iranian people.”
• April 23: Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran’s chief of police, speaking with members of the parliamentary Cultural Affairs Committee, said, as quoted by reformist Entekhab News: “Thanks to parliamentary support, along with backing from the Cabinet and the Judiciary and the cooperation of the public, we will forcefully continue the Nour Plan.”
• April 24: Jamaran News released an interview with Masoud Pezeshkian, a parliamentarian from Tabriz in East Azerbaijan province, in which he attacked the regime’s policies concerning the hijab issue:
  • “Radio and television, the institution of the clergy, schools, and teachers – they have all been under the control of the regime, yet we failed to educate” women who don’t wear a hijab, “and now we want to solve the issue by exercising force? In my opinion, this is not possible. Many ladies do not have a problem with religion, or with the Shia. They just have a different lifestyle. If we act like this,” referencing the use of force to enforce the hijab law, “they will end up having problems with religion and the Shia sect, and they will get more stubborn … In the Parliament, the hijab issue is a political priority. You were in charge of educating the people. The behavior of the people today is the result of your educational effort … The people in the street are the result of our schools and education and our television and radio.”
• April 24: In an interview with Fars News, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Majid Mir-Ahmadi said the police will continue the “Nour Plan” to enforce the hijab law: “As the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution has said, the hijab issue is a legal matter and a necessity according to sharia … In 2022, hostile intelligence services were trying to promote noncompliance with the hijab, nudism, immorality, and even opposition to religion in our society … These hostile foreign intelligence services, and on top of them all, the Zionist regime, are the leaders of noncompliance with the hijab … This is why Iran International TV, which is an instrument of the Zionist regime, concentrates on the hijab issue … A small but vocal minority removed the hijab. Some of them did so because of youthful passions and under the influence of social media, unaware of the conspiracies of the enemy, and not out of enmity toward Islam. The absolute majority cooperates with and follows the advice of the police. Our patience and restraint, or even lack of enforcement, gradually created the misconception that the authorities have accepted noncompliance with the hijab law or are incapable of countering the enemy conspiracies, but this is not the case … The Law Enforcement Forces are fulfilling their duties as a part of the Nour Plan.”
• April 24: Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, a former IRGC chief commander who is the head of the Baqiat-Allah Cultural and Societal Headquarters, whose exact role and duties are unknown, said, as quoted by IRGC mouthpiece Tabnak News: “The execution of the Nour Plan may have been flawed, and mistakes may have taken place … The warnings of the supreme leader will correct those mistakes, but we should not question the plan in its entirety, and it is the duty of us all to support this work.”
• April 25: Centrist Khabar Online quoted Jafari as confirming Fazaeli’s April 19 claim that Khamenei issued a warning to those involved in the Nour Plan.

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