On the streets of Iran’s capital, Tehran, young women are increasingly flouting the compulsory hijab laws, posting videos online that show them walking the streets unveiled. Their defiance comes more than three years after the killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman taken into custody by the “morality police” for allegedly breaching the dress code rules. Her death led to the largest wave of popular unrest for years in Iran and a crackdown by security services in response, with hundreds of protesters killed and thousands injured.
Under Iran’s “hijab and chastity” law, which came into force in 2024, women caught “promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing” face severe penalties, including fines of up to £12,500, flogging and prison sentences ranging from five to 15 years for repeat offenders.
The authorities have also encouraged members of the public to become “hijab monitors” through a state-backed reporting platform that allows them to report women for alleged violations.
In December, the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said the hijab was crucial “to preserve the dignity of women and to restrain very strong and dangerous sexual urges”, heralding the start of a new push to enforce the dress code laws.
Within days, the security forces intensified their hijab enforcement. The organisers of a popular marathon race in Kish Island, off the southern coast of Iran, were arrested and accused of “violating public decency” for allowing women to run unveiled.
But speaking to the Guardian, women in Iran say public opinion has shifted and even more women are open to flouting the dress code rules despite the increase in arrests and penalties.
“We never needed Khamenei’s permission, nor do we need it now. The scenes you are witnessing are because we do not care what he has to say,” says Hoda*, a Tehran-based journalist.
“We are running out of water [referring to Iran’s water shortage crisis], there are growing labour protests and the war with Israel has left the administration weak. Hijab is an easy distraction while they deal with all these serious issues.”
Although Hoda accepts that more women will be arrested, she says the Iranian authorities would avoid mass arrests because “last time they did it, they looked like fools across the world”.
In Tehran, Golnar*, a visual artist, believes young Iranians will not return to previous norms. She recently filmed a police officer warning teenagers who were playing music; the group ignored him. She says the regime, weakened by war and sanctions, “needs good PR” and cannot risk viral images of hijab arrests.
“Do I have it in the back of my head that I will be at any time dragged into a van? Yes, I am not going to lie. But the plan is to push the boundaries collectively, so they can’t break a few of us,” says Golnar.
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Top left: Two friends talking outside a cultural centre in Tehran; top right: A woman stands on a table in a café in Tehran to remove her headscarf in a symboilc gesture; bottom left: A woman looks towards a building opposite her house that was demolisehd by Israeli missile strikes in June 2025; bottom right: A woman strolls with her child around the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Elsewhere in Tehran, Shaghayegh*, 22, pushes boundaries through an all-women motorcycle club. Women cannot obtain bike licences in Iran, yet her group rides weekly. “They have become very lax and don’t stop us any more,” she says.
Shaghayegh says she no longer wears a headscarf off the bike. “If I wear a hijab now, I feel I’m undoing all the sacrifices so many Iranians have made. There’s no going back.”
While most viral videos come from Tehran, women in other provinces also report a shift in attitudes.
Leyla*, a business owner in the central Iranian city of Shiraz, says she has never seen the city so energised. “Honestly, it’s really hopeful to see. The fact that more and more women choose how they dress is exactly what makes them braver. These visuals are a proof of our bravery and not the reform that many pro-regime folks are pointing to.”
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Two girls view Picasso’s Guernica at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, where a large number of the artist’s original works are on display. Many of these pieces are being exhibited for the first time
In Iran’s northern Kurdistan region, Zerin*, a student says “morality police” presence is minimal but broader targeting continues. “In Kurdistan we are targeted by the authorities for our Kurdish identity and hijab isn’t the only concern.
“I fear when they start enforcing hijab in Tehran, they will use that as an excuse to make mass arrests of our men and women simply over our identity, and make up national security and spy charges like they have been doing before and after Mahsa Amini’s death.”
Skylar Thompson, deputy director of Human Rights Activists in Iran, says the authorities lack the capacity to enforce hijab consistently and are, perhaps, reluctant to confront women amid domestic and international pressures. “The political, security, and economic climate is fragile and even a small provocation could trigger new unrest.”
* Names have been changed
The photographs in this article were taken in Tehran in November and December 2025.
