page_title: Women's rights in Iran
section_title: Hijab
hierarchical_section_title: Women's rights in Iran / Legal rights history / Hijab
caption_attribution_description: English: Basiji Students meeting with Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei - September 4, 1999
context_page_description: During the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iran, women's rights have been severely restricted compared with those in most developed nations. The World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Iran 140 out of 144 countries for gender parity. In 2017 in Iran, females comprised just 19% of the paid workforce with seven percent growth since 1990. In 2017, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security Index ranked Iran in the bottom tercile of 153 countries. Compared to other South Asian regions, women in Iran have a better access to financial accounts, education, and cellphones. Iran was ranked 116 out of the 153 countries in terms of legal discrimination against women.
  In Iran, women's rights have changed according to the form of government ruling the country and attitudes towards women's rights to freedom and self-determination have changed frequently. With the rise of each government, a series of mandates for women's rights have affected a broad range of issues, from voting rights to dress code.
  The rights and legal status of Iranian women have changed since the early 20th century, especially during the past three systems of government.
context_section_description: The hijab is a veil worn by Muslim women when interacting with males outside of their immediate families. Before the foundation of the Islamic Republic, women were not required to wear a veil. In 1935, Reza Shah mandated that women should no longer be veiled in public; because of that, a significant number of women became isolated in their houses because they felt going outside without hijab was equivalent to being naked. Women's dependency grew during this period because they relied on others to run errands.
  Compulsory wearing of the hijab was reinstated for Iranian state employees after the 1979 revolution; this was followed by a law requiring the wearing of the hijab in all public spaces in 1983.
  The Guidance Patrol, an undercover law enforcement squad also known as "Morality Police" (Persian: گشت ارشاد‎ Gašt-e Eršād), surveys women in public for dress-code violations. Wearing a headscarf has been strictly enforced in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Women who did not wear a hijab or were deemed to be wearing "bad hijab" by having some of their hair showing faced punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment. In December 2017, the Iranian government announced women would no longer be arrested for wearing a "bad hijab" in public, but those not wearing one would have to attend Islam education classes. Though the announcement was viewed as a moderate improvement, the police still targeted activists campaigning against compulsory hijab-wearing.
  On November 26, 2018, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human-rights lawyer and political prisoner being held at Tehran's Evin Prison, began a hunger strike demanding the release of Farhad Meysami, a doctor who is in jail for protesting compulsory wearing of the hijab. In late 2018 the US State Department condemned the arbitrary arrest of Meisami, who had been on hunger strike since August. In April 2019, Sotoudeh was sentenced to 148 lashes and 38 years in prison for defending opposition activists and women's rights for not wearing hijabs in public. According to the judge presiding over Sotoudeh's case, she was punished for "gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security" and "insulting the supreme leader".
  In August 2019, Iranian civil rights activist Saba Kord Afshari was sentenced to 24 years in prison, including a 15-year term for taking off her hijab in public, which Iranian authorities say promoted "corruption and prostitution".
  Iranian activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh was arrested three times and imprisoned twice for defying Iran's laws about compulsory hijab. She encourage men and women to "post images on social media of themselves either wearing white or no headscarf to protest being forced to wear the hijab." She later fled Iran.
  In 2019 three women arrested for "disrespecting compulsory hijab" were sentenced to a total of 55 years and six months by a "Revolutionary Court" in Iran.
caption: Two Basiji women with hijab
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "782", "Image ImageLength": "521", "Image XResolution": "662", "Image YResolution": "662", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Artist": "khamenei.ir", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "khamenei.ir", "Image ExifOffset": "370", "Image XPTitle": "[47, 6, 74, 6, 47, 6, 39, 6, 49, 6, 32, 0, 47, 6, 39, 6, 70, 6, 52, 6, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "khamenei.ir", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "782", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "521"}