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iran hijab morality police (1)
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The Iranian regime’s Assembly of Experts has doubled down on enforcing the mandatory hijab, issuing a statement urging authorities to take decisive action against so-called cultural deviations. The Council declared on March 16 that officials must “stand firm against enemy plots, particularly regarding chastity and hijab,” calling for intensified crackdowns against women defying the strict dress code.
This renewed push for repression comes amid escalating infighting within the regime over how to handle growing societal disobedience. Extremist factions insist that any relaxation of the hijab law will spark uprisings, while their rivals argue that tightening restrictions will provoke even greater unrest. Despite these opposing views, both factions share the same underlying fear: a society on the brink of explosion, ready to challenge the clerical regime itself.
The regime’s internal rifts were further exposed when an extremist cleric Hamed Vafsi warned the regime’s president Masoud Pezeshkian that failing to enforce the hijab law would render him an “illegitimate” ruler. “If you refuse to implement this law, you are corrupt and deceitful,” Vafsi declared. “You swore on the Quran to uphold Islamic law—if you go against it, you are already dismissed. We don’t even need to remove you.” His inflammatory remarks underscore how some factions are using the hijab issue to assert control over Pezeshkian’s incoming administration, preemptively challenging any potential leniency on social restrictions.
Our latest 'You Be the Judge' #video:
Why is #Iran’s regime forcing #women to wear the mandatory hijab?#WomensRights
Also watch& share on @YouTube:https://t.co/A7riGV3zjl pic.twitter.com/t3EYwlxLzD
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 8, 2022
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of the parliament associated with the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has accused his fellow lawmakers in the Paydari Front of deliberately fueling tensions. “Some are trying to pit Parliament against the Supreme National Security Council,” Nabavian warned. “We cannot afford division when the country is already volatile.” However, his call for caution has done little to contain the growing fractures within the regime, as authorities continue their aggressive campaign to enforce strict social control.
Nabavian, one of the initiators of the “Hijab and Chastity Law,” warned in a video posted on social media: “When we passed the hijab bill, it was before Syria’s fall, before the martyrdom of Seyed Hassan [Narallah]. The Supreme National Security Council has stated that, for now, anything that could create polarization must be avoided.”
He further emphasized, citing Quranic verses, that preserving the Islamic state is even more important than preserving a single person, even the Imam of the current era. “It might be that the enemy forces us to enforce the hijab law only partially. We must not polarize society in a way that harms the state.”
#Iran’s Hijab Law Becomes Battleground Amid Regime’s Desperation to Preserve Power https://t.co/jdwzS6jcVI
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) December 13, 2024
The regime’s own security institutions are acutely aware of the dangers posed by internal discord over the mandatory hijab law. The state-run Siasat Rooz newspaper acknowledged this tension on March 17, revealing that the Supreme National Security Council had advised delaying the enforcement of the law, warning that “the implementation of such laws that could lead to riots and unrest must be temporarily halted.”
As the ruling elite battles over the hijab issue, their infighting only serves to embolden Iranian society. The very disputes that were meant to reinforce the regime’s control are instead encouraging people to defy repression altogether. The more the regime fights within itself, the clearer it becomes that things like the hijab are no longer just symbols of religious doctrine—they are battlegrounds for the regime’s survival. And in this battle, the people of Iran are making it increasingly clear that they will not submit.