A senior Iranian cleric said women without proper hijab should not be excluded from wartime gatherings, while Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called for reason and moderation over ideological confrontation.
Ayatollah Mohammad Javad Fazel Lankarani said Iranians should not be divided by issues such as hijab when the country and Islam were under threat.
He said the issue of hijab remained a religious duty, but argued that it would be wrong to tell women without proper hijab not to attend nightly gatherings organized in support of the war effort.
“When the country itself and the foundation of Islam are in danger, we should not deal with second- and third-tier issues... we should not ask the man who has taken up a weapon and entered the field whether he prays or not, let alone raise the issue of hijab,” Fazel Lankarani said.
The comments came as Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, published an essay calling for a return to “reason and moderation” in Iranian public life.
Marking the day honoring the philosopher Mulla Sadra, the outlet argued that Iran needed a form of rationality that sees religion “not as a tool of control, but as a light for illumination.”
The essay criticized what it described as emotional and irrational forms of religiosity, as well as currents that reject religion entirely in the name of modernity.
It said Iran needed dialogue instead of conflict, and a reinterpretation of tradition rather than either blind imitation or outright rejection.
The shift does not amount to a formal retreat from policies such as mandatory hijab, but it reflects a growing recognition inside parts of the system that ideological confrontation at home could weaken the wartime unity authorities are trying to preserve.
