According to the attorney general, the Iranian parliament and the judiciary of the Islamic Republic are reviewing a law that obliges women to cover their heads. “Parliament and the judiciary are working” on this issue, Attorney General Mohammed Jafar Montaseri said yesterday, according to the ISNA news agency. He announced the results in “a week or two” but declined to comment on what the law might change.
In July, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pushed for strict enforcement of the headscarf requirement “by all state institutions”. Today, however, he said: “Our Constitution has strong and unchanging values and principles. (…) But there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be changed.” Since 1983, women in Iran have been required to wear a headscarf.
Protests have been raging in Iran for weeks. The trigger was the death of 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini – she was arrested by religious police in mid-September for allegedly violating the dress code. Since then, more and more women have stopped wearing headscarves. Iran blames its enemy, the United States, and its allies, including Britain and Israel, for the violent clashes.