Tehran Prosecutor Ali Salehi has moved hijab in Iran enforcement into cafes, restaurants and clothing stores in Tehran, saying the judiciary was preparing action over “committing acts contrary to public chastity and selling unconventional clothing.” The pressure now reaches businesses, not just street checks, as authorities widen closures tied to hijab violations.
On Monday, Ali Salehi said the judiciary was preparing to move against cafes, restaurants and clothing stores. On Thursday, he ordered judicial authorities to identify and confront “organized and networked actors” promoting unveiling. That language signals a shift from isolated punishment to a broader effort to treat hijab violations as something organized, with businesses pulled into the enforcement net.
Tehran enforcement widens
Authorities have shut cafes, restaurants, shops and sports clubs in more than 15 cities in recent weeks over hijab violations by customers or staff. The closures reach beyond Tehran and into Isfahan and Mashhad, making the enforcement visible in daily spaces where women, owners and customers can be affected at once.
The campaign has also reached mobility rules. Women have been blocked from obtaining motorcycle licenses despite a government decision sent to police in February. Shargh wrote on Wednesday that the resistance appeared to be about what women would be wearing on the bikes, which puts clothing enforcement inside a licensing dispute rather than only on the street.
Masoud Pezeshkian and the frozen law
President Masoud Pezeshkian has not submitted the Hijab and Chastity law to government bodies for implementation. The freeze was taken above him out of fear that enforcing it would set off a new wave of anti-government protests. He has not objected to the law itself, but the law remains held back because officials feared the reaction that could follow.
That same pressure is now visible in public messaging. Hijab has moved to the front of the placards and slogans at nightly pro-government rallies, which drew some unveiled women in the early weeks of the war. Those rallies are far smaller now and the crowd is almost entirely hardline, while female hardliners have held gatherings in Isfahan and Mashhad.
Hardliner pressure on Iran
Outside the governor's office in Isfahan, one placard carried a line attributed to Benjamin Netanyahu that said, “Unveiled women are our free soldiers.” Hardliners have also circulated footage online of women walking, exercising, dancing and singing in shopping centers, cafes and streets, alongside posts urging that “the operational phase” begin soon and warnings that leniency over hijab would weaken other religious laws.
For business owners, the immediate risk is that enforcement now reaches licensing, closures and surveillance of everyday spaces at the same time. For women in Iran, the sharper question is whether the suspended Hijab and Chastity law stays frozen or is revived through the judiciary’s next move, after hardliners pushed the issue from slogans into closures and orders.
