Iran’s Security Council blocks enforcement of hijab law, parliament says

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has instructed the legislature not to enforce a contentious law mandating stricter hijab regulations.

“Although I had no intention of publicly declaring this in such explicit terms, the SNSC has formally written to the Parliament, directing us not to promulgate the hijab and chastity law for now," Ghalibaf told lawmakers.

His remarks came in response to a demand from hardline MP Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali, who urged the Speaker to forward the bill for executive enforcement.

The legislation—officially titled The Law to Support the Family by Promoting Chastity and Hijab—was passed by Parliament in December 2023 but has remained unenforced amid internal disagreements and widespread public opposition at home and abroad. The United Nations said the proposal amounted to "gender apartheid".

Ghalibaf emphasized that, under Article 176 of Iran’s Constitution, the SNSC has overriding authority on matters of national security.

“When the Council issues a directive of this nature, the Speaker has no legal authority to proceed with enforcement,” he said.

Behind-the-scenes power struggles

The decision underscores an intensifying struggle between Iran’s ultra-conservative factions, who demand immediate enforcement, and state institutions seeking to avoid further social unrest.

In recent months, hardliners and religious vigilante groups have mounted increasing pressure on authorities to enforce the law, even staging sit-ins outside Parliament that were eventually broken up by police.

Mohammad-Mannan Raisi, a firebrand MP closely aligned with the ultraconservative Paydari (Steadfastness) Front, recently accused the SNSC of betraying the Islamic Republic’s core supporters by halting enforcement of what he called “God’s commandments.”

The SNSC’s September 2024 decision to quietly shelve the law followed a wave of public backlash, echoing the protests that erupted in 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. The unrest marked one of the most significant challenges to the Islamic Republic in decades.

Surveillance without legislation

While the law itself remains suspended, authorities have pursued enforcement by other means.

Since late March, women in Tehran, Shiraz, and Isfahan have reported receiving text-message warnings for alleged hijab violations detected via surveillance footage.

Activists and digital rights experts say the messages are powered by AI-enabled facial recognition systems, cross-referenced with government ID databases and mobile phone data.

Critics have condemned the approach as unconstitutional and ethically fraught.

“Does the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice even have legal access to people’s personal data?” asked Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a former government spokesman and law professor, in a popular post on X.

In March, the UN's Fact Finding Mission on Iran said, "surveillance online was a critical tool for State repression," including against those rejecting the mandatory hijab.

"This enforcement increasingly relies on technology, surveillance and even State-sponsored vigilantism," the investigators said, with methods including dedicated apps to report violators and the monitoring of social media.

Despite government denials, the crackdown has continued.

In April, Iran’s police signed a cooperation agreement with the Education Ministry allowing enforcement measures in schools, sparking backlash from teachers’ unions who warned of “militarizing education.”

The standoff over hijab enforcement highlights deeper political dilemmas which continue to challenge Iran’s clerical leadership.

Public defiance continues to rise. Across major cities, women are increasingly seen without headscarves in public spaces, often posting videos online in acts of civil disobedience.