On February 5, 1979, Kayhan newspaper published the following headline: “Women must go to offices with hijab.” In fact, it had only been a month since the victory of the 1357 Revolution when Ayatollah Khomeini, in a speech at the Refah School, criticized the government of Engineer Bazargan for not being revolutionary enough and said: “There should be no sin in the Islamic ministries. Naked women should not come to the Islamic ministries. Women can go, but they must have hijab. There is no obstacle for them to work, but they must have religiously appropriate hijab.”

Women on the eve of celebrating March 8th, International Women’s Day, were faced with this news and showed various reactions to it. Some women gathered in hospitals and high school girls formed protest gatherings in schools. Approximately 15,000 women from the University of Tehran marched in protest against compulsory hijab.

Women were chanting slogans: “We oppose tyranny”, “We don’t want compulsory hijab.”

However, many intellectuals and political activists adopted different approaches during that period. For example, Homa Nategh, a prominent intellectual and member of the Writers’ Association, in her speech at Tehran University in February 1957, questioned all the activities of the Pahlavi government for women and called them superficial. She declared that the freedom of women is dependent on the freedom of the whole society and that when a true revolution takes place, women will also be liberated. Referring to the issue of hijab, she strongly criticized the unveiling of Reza Shah and said: “A woman who cannot freely choose her own clothing cannot freely choose her own beliefs. This is self-contradictory and goes against the principles of freedom.”

Maryam Firouz, a member of the central committee of the Iranian Tudeh Party, had declared in response to those who were concerned about women’s rights: “In the history of Iran, no one like Khomeini has been found who holds women in such high esteem as befits their position.”

Of course, two weeks after the victory of the 1957 revolution, the cancellation of the law supporting families, as the first law cancelled by the office of Ayatollah Khomeini, was a clear sign of the sensitivity of the clergy and religious revolutionaries to the issue of women. Although this action faced criticism, intellectuals still preferred to remain silent or justify it and pass by it.

A large portion of parties, organizations, and intellectuals close to them who were involved in the struggle against “anti-imperialism”, “dependent capitalism”, or “anti-revolution” and “mullahs” in practice considered the fight for defending women’s freedom of dress and veil to be minor and even insignificant.

Some of the conflicts also revolved around the issue that the chador is not the Islamic hijab and that the headscarf and other forms of hijab also play a role in Islamic hijab. This may have caused the main issue – which was the compulsory hijab – to be forgotten.

The main official reaction at that time was shown by the interim government; Abbas Amir Entezam, the government spokesperson, announced: The Prime Minister and all the ministers believe in the holy verse “There is no compulsion in religion” and do not issue orders to force women.

However, protests against mandatory hijab also took place in other cities such as Sanandaj and Shiraz, and ultimately government officials indirectly ignored this issue.

Ayatollah Khomeini, who in 1978 after his only official statement on the issue of hijab, did not take any other position, strongly criticized the government in a speech in July 1980 for not removing signs of monarchy in government offices. He gave the Bani Sadr government 10 days to make the offices Islamic.

But this time, unlike in 1957, there was no widespread and intense protest against these statements. Perhaps one of the main reasons for this silence can be attributed to the political climate of that time. The unrest in Kurdistan and Turkmen Sahra, as well as the beginning of clashes between leftist forces and Hezbollah in Tehran and several other cities, had taken away the opportunity for people to focus on the issue of hijab. Furthermore, many intellectuals were either killed or imprisoned at that time, and some had also left Iran.

Finally, the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly passed the Islamic Penal Code in 1363. According to this law, anyone who does not observe the hijab in public places will be sentenced to 72 lashes.

From this date, pressures on women’s clothing increased and during the post-war period and the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani, severe restrictions were imposed on women’s clothing in society.

With the arrival of Khatami as the president of reforms, to some extent, the discourse of religious intellectualism with secular approaches brought about a more open social space, which to some extent faced less restrictions on women’s clothing.

Since 2004, with the launch of “Guidance Patrol”, the crackdown on hijab in the streets of the capital began, but not officially and continuously. It was in 2007 that this plan resumed with more seriousness in Tehran and major cities, with a wider scope of authority – dealing with hijab, fighting against thugs, collecting street addicts, etc. – with the enactment of new laws.

In December 2005, the Executive Measures for the Promotion of Chastity and Veil Culture was announced by the President. This law specified obligations for more than 20 different organizations regarding the promotion of chastity and veil. However, it was never seriously monitored and accurate reports on its implementation were not published.

The moral security plan was implemented in various intervals and with different methods since that year. Some fundamentalists opposed the selective implementation of the plan and demanded continuous action against immodest individuals in society.

After the 2009 elections and the formation of the Green Movement, the issue of hijab was forgotten to some extent for the government; but after the suppression of opponents and the relative calmness of the public space, we are once again witnessing severe confrontations, this time continuously, between the law enforcement forces and women and girls under the pretext of morality patrols.

New mechanisms for dealing with those who do not observe the hijab (Islamic dress code) start with detention and written commitment and end with monetary fines and even imprisonment.

Although in the process of warning and detention, violent and sometimes insulting actions of law enforcement have caused more dissatisfaction in society.

This is happening while some of the conservatives within the system have recently taken a stance against military confrontations with the issue of hijab. The website Alif (Ahmad Tavakoli’s news and analysis website) has criticized the mechanisms of compulsory hijab in its notes.

We need to see what new plans the Islamic Republic government has for dealing with women and how the role of protest movements will be in confronting these hostile actions.