Iran International
A senior official representing Iran’s Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has criticized President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government over enforcement of the latest controversial hijab legislation.
“In a recent interview, the government’s spokeswoman declared that hijab is not something [that authorities] can impose by force,” Ali Saeedi who heads the Ideological-Political Bureau of Iran's Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, on Friday told Howzah News, the news agency of Iran's Shia seminaries.
At an October 29 press briefing, a reporter questioned government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani on whether Pezeshkian's administration was taking steps to prevent police from penalizing women for defying the hijab law by impounding their vehicles. “That is still happening,” the reporter stressed.
Mohajerani replied that compliance with the hijab cannot be achieved through pressure and violence. She noted that over the past forty years, experience has shown that forceful methods are ineffective.
She also stressed that the President still abides by his promise to the Iranian people to try to put a stop to using such methods to enforce hijab.
“Her Highness is not mindful of the fact that hijab is both a Sharia rule and a [civil] law requirement,” Saeedi said in a harsh tone and added that the administration is required to abide by the Sharia and implement the civil law.
Saeedi accused the government of neglecting its responsibility and adopting a lenient stance toward what he described as "libertinism and vulgarism" concerning the hijab issue.
The recently finalized hijab law imposes an array of penalties including heavy cash fines and prison terms on women for not conforming to strict hijab regulations and businesses for not enforcing them.
The finalization of the legislation, a year after it passed Parliament, was announced on October 19 by Hadi Tahan-Nazif, the constitutional Guardian Council’s spokesman. Parliament legislation only becomes effective after the clerical council approves it.
During this time, the Parliament and the Guardian Council repeatedly shuffled the legislation back and forth behind closed doors.
The Council and lawmakers disclosed very little of the Council’s objections to the legislation's provisions and the amendments that it required the Parliament to make before it was finally approved.
The announcement placed Pezeshkian in a dilemma. As president, he is legally obligated to sign and formally relay new legislation to his administration for enactment within five days of receiving notification from Parliament.
In the past, presidents like Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and others have repeatedly refused to acknowledge or enact legislation they opposed. In such instances, the responsibility to communicate the legislation falls to the speaker of parliament.
However, neither Pezeshkian nor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has taken the legally required step or provided any explanation for the delay—an unprecedented situation in the history of the Islamic Republic.
Pundits say Ghalibaf, who has formed an undeclared alliance with Pezeshkian against ultra-hardliners, is cautious about taking responsibility for enacting the highly unpopular law, which could even spark unrest. Meanwhile, Pezeshkian is deeply concerned about alienating his voters, many of whom strongly support abolishing the compulsory hijab.
One might assume that some of these students rose to positions of power. Indeed, some did, but most eventually fell out of favor with Iran’s leaders, with a few even landing in jail. The exact number of those involved remains unknown. Now, 45 years later, only a handful remain untouched—and even they are viewed with disfavor by both the Iranian public and insiders within the establishment.
Former conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari, wrote last November that it was "an unnecessary move that was made with the provocations of leftist groups to serve the interests of the Embassy of the Soviet Union and the Tudeh Communist Party." Many others recall that the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy plunged Iran into decades of hardship, triggering a prolonged war and a crushing economic crisis for its people. But where are those who made that fateful decision?
Masoumeh Ebtekar, the spokesperson for the radical students, eventually rose to become President Hassan Rouhani’s vice president for women and family affairs and previously served as vice president for the environment. Last year, some lawmakers introduced a motion to take her to court over alleged failures in environmental protection.
Ebtekar is married to Mohammad Hashemi Esfahani, another former hostage-taker and who later became an Intelligence Ministry operative, and has been implicated in illicit oil sales. Known to the American hostages as "Sister Mary," Ebtekar was one of the few students who spoke English.
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who initially designed and masterminded the embassy seizure, remains active today as a self-proclaimed reformist. However, he is largely shunned by the reformist camp, who view him as an insider closely linked to Khamenei’s circle. According to the Mashregh News website, which is affiliated with Iranian intelligence, Asgharzadeh led the hostage-takers' “central council,” which included figures such as Ali Asghar Zahmatkesh, Abbas Abdi, Hashemi Esfahani, and others.
Abdi soon left the group. He later became the editor of leftist newspaper Salam and is currently a high-profile reformist commentator. He is the only hostage taker who later met with one of the hostages and reportedly apologized for his behavior.
Another well-known hostage taker was Mohammad Reza Khatami, former President Mohammad Khatami's brother and is nowhere to be seen after he fell out with the establishment. Khatami served as a deputy Majles Speaker in the 1990s.
Mohsen Aminzadeh, a prominent figure in the embassy seizure, later became a deputy foreign minister with ties to the Intelligence Ministry. He was jailed after the contested 2009 presidential election but has since been released.
Hossein Kamali went on to serve as Iran’s labor minister and was close to former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Until 1985, the former students held regular meetings at the US Embassy building, where they managed the translation and publication of seized embassy documents. In that year, the Intelligence Ministry took control of the remaining documents, halting further Persian translations. It was then that "The Students Following the Line of Imam Khomeini" chose to dissolve as a group or political organization.
Several former members, including Reza Seyfollahi, Aziz Jafari, and Hossein Dehghan, joined the armed forces. Seyfollahi served as Iran’s police chief for a few years before moving to the IRGC Intelligence Organization. Hossein Dehghan served as Iran’s interior minister for a few years. Aziz Jafari was the IRGC's commander-in-chief for several years until Hossein Salami succeeded him in 2019. Alireza Afshar led the Basij militia for several years before taking charge of the “soft war” department at the National Defense University, while Akbar Rafan was the IRGC’s first air force commander. Several former students lost their lives during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Habibollah Bitaraf, who was energy minister under President Khatami, currently faces criticism for policies that allegedly damaged Iran’s environment. Rahman Dadman served as Khatami’s road minister and died in a plane crash. Ezzatollah Zarghami, another former student who joined the IRGC, became deputy culture minister in the 1990s and later headed state television; he was also appointed cultural heritage and tourism minister under President Raisi.
One of the more interesting figures among the students was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who declined to participate in the embassy takeover. According to Hashemi Esfahani, Ahmadinejad argued that they should instead target the Russian Embassy.
This is the updated version of a similar article published on this website in November 2021.