Bareheaded women appear openly in Tehran cafés and streets, yet activists warn the shift is fragile and the law remains on the books.
Images have been circulating on social media of something that would have been almost unimaginable in Iran just a few years ago: women sipping coffee in Tehran cafés, strolling busy city streets, and sitting in restaurants — all without a headscarf. The scenes have ignited global attention and renewed debate over whether the Islamic Republic is quietly retreating from one of its most defining ideological pillars.
For decades, wearing the hijab in public has been mandatory for all women in Iran — a rule enshrined in the Islamic Penal Code since 1983 and treated as a cornerstone of the clerical state established after the 1979 revolution. Violations could result in fines, arrest, or worse. Yet in recent weeks and months, enforcement appears to have noticeably slackened, at least in major urban centres.
A Visible Shift on the Streets
Reporters and residents describe a transformed streetscape in parts of Tehran. Women are increasingly seen without headscarves in public spaces, often posting videos online in acts of civil disobedience. The once-ubiquitous manteau coat has nearly vanished in some neighbourhoods, replaced by long blouses and trousers. Crop tops and open shirts have become increasingly visible among young women — a quiet but unmistakable shift in daily life.
"Just three years ago, this would have felt like a dream," said Zahra, 57, a housewife from Isfahan. "My youth has passed and I didn't get to have this experience; now I don't wear it anymore, but I wish I could have experienced these days when I was young."
The change gained momentum from the 2022–2023 nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in custody after being detained by the Morality Police for allegedly violating dress codes. The protests, known as the Women, Life, Freedom movement, proved to be a turning point. Though violently suppressed, they left a lasting mark on public behaviour and official willingness to enforce the veil.
Legal Limbo: A Law Suspended but Not Repealed
The legal picture is deliberately murky. In late 2024, Iran's hardline parliament passed a sweeping new "Chastity and Hijab" bill that would have imposed steep economic penalties — fines, travel bans, and lengthy prison terms — on women who defied the dress code. But in an unprecedented move, the Supreme National Security Council quietly suspended the law, apparently fearing it would ignite fresh unrest.
In October 2025, Mohammadreza Bahonar, a conservative member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, made waves when he told reporters that there was essentially "no compulsory hijab law in force." The remark triggered a furious backlash from ultra-hardliners, and Bahonar later retracted it. Iran's judiciary spokesman subsequently confirmed that existing hijab laws — including Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code — remain on the books and enforceable.
That contradiction captures the current state of affairs: the law has not changed, but the will to enforce it has visibly weakened in many parts of the country.
Activists Warn Against Optimism
Women's rights advocates urge caution about reading too much into the visible changes. Analysts say authorities have slackened off on imposing the mandatory hijab in daily life, but are far from abandoning an ideological pillar of the Islamic Republic, warning a new wave of repression could come at any time.
Arash Azizi, a postdoctoral associate at Yale University, told AFP that "the regime has given up on harshly enforcing mandatory hijab but it has not at all given up on it as a principle yet." He added: "We still see places closed down and even people fined and arrested due to lax hijab. But the regime knows that it will be very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle."
Amnesty International noted this month that "widespread resistance" to the obligatory hijab had "forced authorities to retreat from the violent mass arrests and assaults of previous years" — but stressed that women continue to face harassment, arbitrary arrest, fines, and expulsion from employment and education for resisting.
Enforcement remains uneven. Women can still be summoned by authorities for appearing without a headscarf, and cafés have been shut down for failing to enforce the rule. In Isfahan, one of Iran's more conservative cities, businesses reported their premises being sealed over hijab violations even as the debate raged nationally. The situation in smaller towns and rural areas remains considerably stricter than in Tehran.
A Country at a Crossroads
For many Iranian women, the moment feels historic but precarious. Elnaz, a 32-year-old painter based in Tehran who spoke to AFP, warned against misreading the visible shift: "It is not at all a sign of any change in the government. Because no achievement has been made regarding women's rights. Under the surface, in reality, no real change has taken place in people's freedom."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has continued to publicly defend the hijab as a religious and legal duty, and hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei recently warned that intelligence agencies had been instructed to identify and report "organised currents promoting immorality and non-veiling."
Yet a 2022 survey by the independent research group GAMAAN found that over 70 percent of men and women in Iran opposed mandatory hijab laws — a figure that underscores the widening gap between official policy and public sentiment. Whether that gap becomes a permanent feature of Iranian society, or narrows again under a renewed crackdown, remains one of the defining questions of the Islamic Republic's future.
Artwork: Gemini