Has Khamenei backtracked from strict hijab enforcement?

Some lawmakers and the media outlets in Tehran say the Supreme National Security (SNSC) has shelved the controversial new hijab law, most likely with the consent of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

For months, the law imposing heavy fines and even prison sentences on women violating hijab regulations has sparked division among the public and even Islamic government politicians. During his election campaign, President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged to prevent the harsh treatment of women for hijab.

In response to a question from the semi-official Mehr News Agency Wednesday regarding the government’s actions concerning the Hijab and Chastity Law, which has been referred to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Pezeshkian’s parliamentary deputy, Shahram Dabiri, told reporters that the government has so far requested the law “not to be promulgated, allowing for a decision to be made on it in the future.”

Dabiri added that Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has urged the administration to propose an amendment bill, but whether such a bill will be submitted to the Parliament has yet to be decided.

The President heads the Security Council, but all its decisions require the Supreme Leader’s signature to come into effect.

Khamenei delivered a speech to a group of women Tuesday on the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima, but quite uncharacteristically he did not make any reference to the new hijab law or the issue of hijab in general.

In a speech in April 2023, Khamenei asserted that flouting hijab was “religiously and politically haram (forbidden)”. He claimed that foreign intelligence services were encouraging Iranian women to disobey the mandatory hijab.

He also claimed that “the enemy” was working according to “a plan and plot” and urged authorities to have their own plan for dealing with the issue of women’s unveiling.

His statement at the time was widely interpreted as a directive to authorities to take whatever measures necessary to reassert control over women's appearance in public, a control that had diminished in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

A day after the speech, Ghalibaf said Khamenei's order was clear and promised to give precedence to any hijab-related motion or bill, and the police and other authorities including Tehran Metro security increased their pressure on women and businesses such as shops, restaurants, cafes to enforce hijab rules.

In recent days, several lawmakers, including Deputy Speaker Ali Nikzad, have confirmed that the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has decided to put the hijab law on hold for now. Speaking to the Khabar Online news website on Saturday, Nikzad admitted he was unsure how long the suspension of the law’s implementation would last.

Akbar Rajbarzadeh, another lawmaker, told Khabar Online that the SNSC's decision had to be obeyed because the Council is the highest decision-making body in national security matters.

“The Supreme National Security Council’s preclusion of the promulgation of a controversial law is almost unprecedented, or at least [such an incident] had never been given wide coverage by the media,” the conservative Khabar Online wrote Sunday.

It seems that with the SNSC’s interference, the public and the media will no longer be preoccupied with the controversial law, the conservative Tabnak on Sunday wrote. The step taken by the SNSC would help “the country’s stability and security given the extraordinary sensitivity of the regional and international situations.”

The SNSC consists of two representatives of the Supreme Leader, the heads of the three forces of the government, ministers of interior, intelligence, and foreign affairs, the chief of armed forces’ staff, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and the regular Army commanders, and the head of the Planning and Budget Organization.