Iran International
The sudden closure of the Tehran Design Week exhibition at Tehran University has ignited a storm of reactions—from hardline groups that pushed for its shutdown to students and sympathizers who lamented the decision.
The university closed the exhibition at its Fine Arts Faculty despite thousands queuing to visit each night following a sharply worded protest from the faculty’s Student Basij militia, which accused the event of turning the campus “into a venue for displaying deviance from norms.”
Videos circulating from the event showed female attendees without the mandatory veil, men and women freely mingling and live music performances with political undertones—scenes that angered conservative groups.
Senior cleric Mostafa Rostami, who heads the nationwide body of the Supreme Leader’s representatives to Iranian universities, called the event a “bitter incident.”
“Turning art into anti-culture and non-art is the result of a planned operation to target universities,” he posted on X, suggesting the event was a foreign plot. Authorities, he added, “will not yield one bit” when it comes to preserving Islamic norms.
Too Western
Conservative media also joined the backlash.
The hardline tabloid Saed News lamented the live music and unveiled visitors in a story headlined, “Tehran University’s Disgrace Outraged Everyone: How Far in Breaking Taboos?”
Mashregh News, aligned with the Revolutionary Guards, accused private brands and designers of using Design Week as a marketing opportunity, relying “heavily on Western visual patterns” and even featuring unveiled women in promotional materials.
Many attendees, meanwhile, expressed disappointment at the event’s abrupt end.
Architect and former lecturer Mona Khatami wrote on X: “I was so happy that an event like this had brought people into the university, but as usual, our joy didn’t last long: today they cancelled it.”
'We are the many’
The University of Tehran initially announced that the exhibition was being stopped “because of unprecedented crowding” and “safety risks linked to the visual installations and electrical equipment.”
But few believed the explanation.
“We expected something to happen all along,” Arshiya, an art student, told Iran International. “Every section of the exhibition … reminded those who have the power to stop such events that we are many and they are few.”
An underground activist group, the Progressive Students of Isfahan University, described Tehran Design Week on X as an expression of “modernism, opposition to the compulsory hijab and gender segregation and youth liberation,” calling it a symbol of resistance to regressive cultural controls.
‘Sad but expected’
One especially contentious element of Design Week was its fashion section, held at private venues, where models and designers presented contemporary clothing including outfits worn without the veil.
Videos from these showcases appear to have played a central role in provoking the conservative backlash, with critics framing the relaxed dress and atmosphere as a direct challenge to state-imposed norms.
A commentary in the moderate outlet Rouydad24 argued that organizers had crossed Tehran University’s cultural “red lines,” predicting that future design exhibitions in similar venues may face increased restrictions.
It also noted that the sight of visitors openly defying hijab rules on the Tehran University campus echoed “a message rooted in the 2022 protests,” in which students played an influential role.
As the commentary put it: “It is clear that the factions that for four decades have spared no effort to silence dissent within the university were never going to remain quiet in the face of such a display.”
