Iranian MPs decry lack of observance of female dress code

TEHRAN: More than half the members of Iran’s parliament have accused the judiciary of failing to properly enforce the law on mandatory headscarves, state media reported Tuesday, with some Iranian women now refusing to wear the hijab.

Under rules imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all women in Iran are required to cover their hair completely and wear modest, loose-fitting clothing when in public.

But in major cities, particularly Tehran, many women are now going out without headscarves, sometimes sporting dyed hair along with jeans and sneakers.

“The judiciary cannot remain passive,” 155 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers wrote in a letter to judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.

“The lack of will to promulgate a law approved by the parliament and the failure to implement the Islamic Penal Code have paved the ground for nudity, not observing hijab and other abnormal behaviours,” the parliamentarians were quoted as saying by the body’s official news agency ICANA.

In Iran, the term “nudity” generally refers to clothing deemed inappropriate.

The administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian refused last year to promulgate a law passed by the parliament that would have drastically increased penalties for women who do not wear the hijab or wear it improperly.

“The issue of promulgating the hijab law in the way it is being pursued indicates that it is a political issue, and has nothing to do with the principle of hijab,” Iran’s conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tuesday at a press conference attended by AFP.

Since coming to power in July 2024, Pezeshkian has maintained that women cannot be forced to wear the hijab.

The issue has been a flashpoint of contention in Iran since the mass protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

The morality police had arrested the young woman in Tehran for allegedly flouting the strict Islamic dress code for women.

Some clergy members and conservative officials are vehemently opposed to what they consider to be widespread “nudity” and a surge of Western influence, perceived as a threat.

In recent months, authorities have closed several cafes and restaurants for failing to enforce the hijab rules or for serving alcohol, which is prohibited in Iran.

According to a 2014 religious decree, or fatwa, issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, women must dress in such a way as to leave only the face and hands visible.

The office of the supreme leader came under fire last week from some ultraconservatives after it published in its newspaper a photo of an unveiled Iranian woman killed in the June war against Israel.

In the picture, the young woman appears with a simple cap on her head with her hair visible.