Baseless posts claiming Iran abolished hijab rule spread online

Women in Iran are increasingly testing the boundaries of the country’s strict Islamic dress code but a law requiring women to wear the hijab remains in force, according to rights groups and a government spokesman. The false claim surfaced in Chinese-language social media posts citing an Iranian government advisor who said in October 2025 there was “no mandatory law regarding hijab”; he later walked back those remarks and said head coverings must be worn.

“Iran abolishes the mandatory hijab rule for women. ‘The hijab (law) no longer carries enforcement power’,” reads the simplified Chinese caption of a Weibo post shared October 9, 2025.

Chinese text superimposed on an accompanying video reads, “Recently, Iranian media reported that Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council member Mohammad-Reza Bahonar said hijab law is no longer mandatory. Morality police have no rights to punish women violating the old rules.”

The video — featuring clips of women with and without hijab — begins with a woman removing her headscarf and saying in Mandarin, “The first feeling after leaving Iran is that I am free!” Captions over the clips claim “many Iranian women are removing their hijabs and showing their faces in public”.

Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, women have been required to wear head coverings, but many people — particularly in major cities like the capital Tehran — have pushed the boundaries by allowing the covering to slide back (archived here and here).

In September 2023, parliament approved a bill imposing tougher penalties on women who refuse to wear the hijab. It triggered heated debate in the country, was not submitted to the government for final approval and has since been shelved.

The claim the hijab law had been lifted also appeared in similar Douyin, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram posts.

Chinese users on Weibo hailed the supposed abolishment, with one saying, “Blessings to Iranian women”.

Another comment read: “We often see Iranian female athletes wearing headscarves. From now on, they finally won’t have to wear them anymore.”

However, the law remains in force, rights groups say.

Inconsistent enforcement

Bahar Ghandehari, director of communications at Center for Human Rights in Iran, said the Iranian Penal Code still requires hijab-wearing (archived here and here).

“The mandatory hijab requirement has not been legally abolished. It remains the law of the land. It is only the level of enforcement that has changed, but even this is inconsistent and varies depending on the city and province in Iran,” she told AFP via an email on October 11.

According to a report by Canadian broadcaster CBC on May 20, 2025, some Iranian women have started going without the hijab in public, but notes that crackdowns could return at any time (archived link).

An October 15 report by the Center for Human Rights in Iran said despite the stream of videos showing women walking unveiled in the streets, authorities have switched to using surveillance tactics to prosecute those who breach the hijab law (archived link).

“At times, enforcement is still carried out by the so-called ‘morality police’, but now it is increasingly through electronic surveillance, fines, and the shuttering of businesses that serve unveiled women, rather than direct confrontation,” the report states.

The false posts appear to have stemmed from an October 4 report by Iranian news agency Khabar Online that Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council — which functions as an advisory board to Iran’s leader and also settles legislative disputes — had said, “currently, there is no mandatory law regarding hijab” (archived link).

Bahonar later walked back the statement on October 11 in an interview with Iranian broadcaster IRIB Ofogh, saying wearing the hijab must be complied with (archived here and here).

His comment was also rejected by Expediency Discernment Council spokesperson Mohsen Dehnavi in an X post on October 11, who said Bahonar’s remarks were his “individual point of view”, stressing that the official position comes from “the Council’s chairman or its spokesperson” (archived here and here).

Meanwhile, the false posts also misuse an Iranian vlogger’s video from Douyin posted on August 7, 2024, in which she films herself taking off her hijab upon arrival in Oman — which does not require women to cover their hair at all times (archived link).

AFP previously debunked other misinformation related to hijab.