Iran’s War on Women

Since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has mandated that women and girls above the age of nine wear a hijab (Islamic head-covering) in public. The government crushed protests against the then-new requirement.

Iran’s Islamic Penal Code states: “Women, who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or a fine of fifty thousand to five hundred [thousand] Rials” (Article 638). The article also authorizes a sentence of “two months in prison or up to 74 lashes” for “[anyone] who openly commits a harām (sinful) act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act.” (The severe devaluation of the Rial has reduced the fine to just a few dollars as of 2024.) 

Women who fail to wear headscarves and other attire covering their bodies in public may be harassed by the “Morality Police” (MP), detained, fined, and/or flogged. 

Many Iranians have expressed opposition to mandatory hijab, including through the “White Wednesdays” campaign (begun in 2017), in which Iranians wear white headscarves or other clothing on Wednesdays in protest. 

In December 2017, Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, announced that officers would cease arresting and charging women for dress code violations. However, the authorities reversed their policy after the nationwide protests against the regime in late December and early January. During the demonstrations, Iranian women publicly removed their headscarves and waved them in the air. Videos of these acts of defiance by women dubbed “The Girls of Revolution Street” went viral worldwide.

In response, Gen. Rahimi announced a zero-tolerance policy against the protestors, warning that “Although the sentence for not wearing a hijab [head-covering] is two months in prison, anyone encouraging others to take off their hijab will be jailed for 10 years.” The latter punishment would be applied by trying protesters for the crimes of “inciting corruption and prostitution” under article 639 of the Islamic Penal Code.

During his tenure as president from 2021 to 2024, Ebrahim Raisi sharply increased the enforcement of the hijab. In July 2022, he instituted a “hijab and chastity” decree prioritizing hijab enforcement, including harsh regulations on women’s dress in workplaces and increased government propaganda about the hijab. Women not wearing “complete hijab” (covering not only the hair but the neck and shoulders) have been prohibited from entering government offices and banks and using public transit. And the head of the Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice announced that the regime would utilize facial-recognition technology for hijab enforcement, likely exploiting data from new biometric identity cards.

The regime increased patrols of the Morality Police to monitor hijab compliance, with arbitrary detentions—and sometimes beatings—if even a few strands of hair were uncovered. Secretly recorded videos of Morality Police abuses circulated online. One woman, 28-year-old Sepideh Rashno, was arrested and beaten, and then state television broadcast her forced “apology.” Her face was covered with bruises.

Arrest and Killing of Mahsa Amini and Resulting Protests and Killings

On September 13, 2022, the Morality Police arrested 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini in the street in Tehran while she was visiting the city with her family. The Morality Police told Amini’s brother that they were detaining her for “improper” hijab and taking her to an “educational and orientation class.” They threw her into a van and, according to eyewitnesses, beat her in the vehicle while en route to the police station. 

The Morality Police informed her brother two hours after her arrest, as he waited outside the station for her, that she had suffered a heart attack and brain seizure. He watched an ambulance take her, comatose, to the hospital. “I found her face swollen and her legs black and blue,” her brother said after visiting her.

Amini died on September 16, 2022. 

That day, state television broadcast a video purporting to show Amini going into the class, walking toward an officer, and falling down abruptly. President Raisi called Amini’s father, Amjad, conveying his condolences and promising to initiate an investigation. Amjad said to the press that he told Raisi the televised video was “lies” and “censored.” Amjad also claimed the authorities had refused to show him surveillance footage of his daughter’s trip inside the police van.

Thousands of Iranians across the country took to the streets to protest against the regime after Amini’s death. Demonstrators have chanted “Woman, life, freedom,” “Death to Khamenei,” and “Death to the dictator.” Women are increasingly going outside without a hijab, with some publicly removing and even burning their hijabs and cutting their hair.

In September 2022, the regime arrested the female journalist who first drew widespread attention to Amini’s death, Niloufar Hamedi, and kept her in solitary confinement at the notoriously brutal Evin Prison. It was reported in October 2023 that Hamedi had been sentenced by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to seven years’ imprisonment for “collaborating with the hostile U.S.,” five years for “acting against national security,” and one year for “propaganda against the regime.” She was released on bail pending appeal in January 2024, and is prohibited from traveling outside Iran.

Likewise, in September 2022 the authorities arrested female journalist Elaheh Mohammadi for reporting on Amini’s funeral. In October 2023, it was reported that Mohammadi had been sentenced by the Tehran Revolutionary Court to six years’ imprisonment for “collaborating with the hostile U.S.,” five years for “acting against national security,” and one year for “propaganda against the regime.” Like Hamedi, Mohammadi was released on bail pending appeal in January 2024 and is prohibited from leaving the country.

There have been additional reports of women protesters dying amid the 2022 crackdown on the unrest. 16-year-old Nika Shakarami disappeared ten days after protesting in Tehran on September 20, 2022. BBC Persian reported that in her last message to a friend, Shakarami indicated she was being pursued by Iranian security forces. Nika was later found with her nose crushed and skull broken. Security forces then reportedly stole her body to prevent her family from holding a funeral. Another case involved 22-year-old protester Hadis Najafi, who was reportedly killed by security forces in Karaj on September 21. Najafi’s sister said she was shot in the head and neck with live ammunition and birdshot from a shotgun.

In October of 2023, a little over a year after Mahsa Amini’s death, 16-year-old Armita Geravand fell into a coma and died after the Morality Police reportedly confronted and assaulted her in the Tehran subway for how she was wearing her hijab. 

In December 2023, Amnesty International released a report stating that security forces in Iran used rape and other forms of sexual violence to intimidate and punish protesters. 

Despite brutality by the authorities, protests continue in Iran today.  The most consistent way that Iranian women protest is by refusing to wear the compulsory hijab in public, regardless of the harsh consequences. 

New Hijab Bill

In September 2023, Iran’s parliament adopted a new bill that would increase regulations around mandatory hijab. Under the bill, women improperly wearing hijab or men donning “revealing clothing that shows parts of the body lower than the chest or above the ankles” would be subject to fines that increase for repeat offenders. Among other things, the bill also penalizes the vaguely defined crime of appearing “semi-naked” in public by five to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 180 million to 360 million rials (equivalent to several thousand U.S. dollars as of 2024). Celebrities found guilty of violating the law would face a similar prison sentence and a fine of between one to five percent of their total assets. Collusion with foreign governments or media to promote improper hijab/dress or nudity would be punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. The bill would also authorize the employment of artificial intelligence to locate women wearing improper hijab/dress.

The Guardian Council unexpectedly rejected the bill, citing deficiencies, and urged revisions to clarify vague terminology.

Operation Nour

Beginning in April 2024, in an operation codenamed Nour (light), the authorities reportedly stepped up detentions of women for improper hijab. The Tehran commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on April 21, 2024, the establishment of a new unit whose agents (nicknamed “the Ambassadors of Kindness”) had been trained to enforce hijab “in a more serious manner” in public places. The regime has reportedly closed hundreds of establishments for failure to enforce mandatory hijab and is using surveillance cameras and drones to spot women not complying with hijab regulations.

Domestic Violence and Honor Killings

Domestic violence is not a crime under Iranian law (the regime generally views it as a private family matter). Under the law, criminal penalties for murder via domestic violence or “honor killings” are lighter than the penalties for other acts of murder. For example, men convicted of murdering their daughters are imprisoned for only three to 10 years, instead of receiving the standard sentence of capital punishment.

 The Iranian parliament still has yet to enact draft legislation authored over a decade ago that would criminalize gender-based violence. After the bill languished in parliament for over five years, the Rouhani administration approved it in May 2017 and sent it to the judiciary for review, but Iran’s chief justice then sat on the bill for two more years. 

Finally, in September 2019, the judiciary cleared the legislation after heavily amending and weakening it. The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) criticized the revised bill because it “does not provide effective and sufficient guarantees to protect women against violence and, in many cases, promotes and supports stereotypical, discriminatory, and sexist views toward women.” The CHRI notes that, among other problems, the measure: 

• does not clearly define the term “violence” and does not use the term “domestic violence”; 
• does not remove legal and enforcement obstacles to protect women from and prosecute their abusers; 
• only requires abusive husbands to provide financial support for their wives for three months after they separate, thereby encouraging battered women to return to their abusive spouses; 
• requires women who seek justice in the courts after being battered or sexually abused by their husbands or fathers to go through a one-month required period of reconciliation with their abusers, during which time the case is referred to a dispute-resolution body; and 
• prevents an abused woman from getting a divorce on the grounds of abuse until her husband is convicted three times of engaging in violence against her. 

After more than one year of further delay, the cabinet approved a further-revised bill on January 3, 2021. Human Rights Watch states, “While a step forward in providing legal definitions surrounding violence against women and measures to support victims, the bill lacks provisions for criminalizing marital rape and child marriage.” The bill awaits further action by the parliament.

The government does not report official statistics about honor killings, but academic research indicates that an estimated 375 to 450 honor killings are committed each year. In 2020, 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi was beheaded by her father for running off with her 29-year-old boyfriend. Fathers who kill their children are subject to a maximum of 10 years in prison, while mothers who do so are liable to the death penalty. Due to national outrage about the beheading, Iran’s Guardian Council okayed a law that criminalized emotional or physical child abuse or abandonment but did not modify the 10-year maximum prison sentence for a father who kills his daughter. In August 2020, Romina Ashrafi’s father was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.

Rape

Marital rape is legal in Iran. Iranian law de facto also deters most victims of non-marital rape from reporting to the authorities. Rape victims who come forward can face prosecution for crimes such as adultery (punishable by execution), “indecency,” or “immoral behavior.” Accused rapists can only be convicted upon the testimony of multiple witnesses (four Muslim men or a greater number of a combination of male and female witnesses). Reportedly, about 80 percent of cases of rape are not reported.

Zahra Navidpour, a woman who had accused of rape Salman Khodadadi, a former IRGC commander and former chair of the parliament’s Social Affairs Committee, was found dead in her home under mysterious circumstances in January of 2019. Also, in 2019, former Iranian vice president and former Tehran mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi confessed to and was convicted of murdering one of his wives. However, her family waived the application of the death penalty. 

In June 2018, international media reported on protests surrounding the gang rape of at least 41 women and girls in the city of Iranshahr, a predominantly Baluchi province. The regime allegedly sought to deny the cases, in which some of the perpetrators reportedly had ties to Iranian security forces. Online activists who sought to publicize the situation on social media faced harassment and arrest for their activities. 

The regime has downplayed the frequency of rape. In 2011, now-President Ebrahim Raisi, then deputy chief justice, claimed, “Today in our society, there is more safety for women than in Western society. We have the most secure situation in the world and this is not contradicted by corrupt individuals committing acts that are in violation of sharia as such instances are quickly investigated.”

Under Iranian law, a girl may be legally married at 13 years old (compared with 15 for a boy), or even younger if her father or grandfather agrees, and a judge assents. Regime figures reveal over 40,000 registered marriages of children in Iran—including over 300 girls under age 14—and the United Nations has expressed concern about the increasing number of marriages of girls ten or younger.

In recent years, there have been efforts by women lawmakers to raise the age of marriage. However, measures to that effect have languished in parliament, despite endorsement by some leading clerics like Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.  

Under the Iranian penal code, the age of criminal responsibility for women is just nine lunar years, compared with 15 lunar years for men. Women receive harsher punishments than men for several crimes, including adultery (which is liable to the death penalty). Most sentences of death by stoning for adultery are leveled against women.

Iranian family law also increases women’s exposure to prosecution for adultery. Men are allowed to have up to four wives and an unlimited number of “temporary wives,” while a woman is limited to one husband, and divorces are far easier to obtain for men than for women. Husbands need not cite a reason for divorce, while wives are only entitled to divorces if their husbands sign contracts to that effect; cannot provide for their families; have otherwise violated their marriage contracts; or are impotent, insane, or addicted to drugs.

Iranian authorities continue to harass interrogate, detain, and imprison women’s rights activists, sometimes accusing them of national-security crimes like espionage and collaboration with foreign powers to overthrow the regime. The government prohibits some women’s rights activists from traveling abroad. 

Since 2018, the regime has detained dozens of individuals for protesting mandatory head-covering. The activists have faced charges that include “inciting prostitution and corruption.” One of the activists, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, was sentenced to two years in prison and an 18-year suspended sentence after prolonged detention in which she was reportedly tortured and beaten and put in solitary confinement. Shajarizadeh, who fled Iran after her sentencing, claims she was told that she would serve her entire 20-year sentence if she engaged in further activism. In August 2019, a revolutionary court sentenced another hijab protester, Saba Kordafshari, to 24 years’ imprisonment. 

In April 2019, the authorities arrested Yasaman Aryani, her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, and Mojgan Keshavarz after posting a International Women’s Day video showing them walking without headscarves in the subway system. In August, a revolutionary court sentenced the three to 16, 16, and 23 years in prison, respectively, for “spreading propaganda against the system” and “inciting corruption and prostitution.” An appeals court reaffirmed their sentences in February 2020.

Nasrin Sotoudeh

In June 2018, the regime arrested prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who had represented Shajarizadeh, reportedly telling her that she had been sentenced in absentia to a five-year prison sentence for espionage and endangering Iranian national security. Critics of the Iranian regime allege that the charges were a pretext and that Iran’s government targeted her for representing political prisoners and women protesting Iran’s compulsory hijab law. 

In March 2019, Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, announced that the regime had opaquely reached additional verdicts against her and that her complete sentence was “a total of 38 years imprisonment with 148 lashes, five years in jail for the first case and 33 years in prison with 148 lashes on the second charges.” Sotoudeh was previously imprisoned from 2010 to 2013 for purported crimes against national security and Iran’s political system. Khandan himself was sentenced in January 2019 to six years’ imprisonment for “conspiring against national security” and “propaganda against the system” through his public advocacy for his wife. He remains free on appeal. 

Masih Alinejad

In September 2019, the regime arrested three relatives of Masih Alinejad, who founded the movement to protest mandatory head-covering. Some of them were put in solitary confinement, according to reports. The authorities reportedly later released one of the three relatives after interrogating him and warned him that contact with Alinejad or “her team” was a crime. In March 2019, the regime interrogated Alinejad’s elderly mother for two hours and videotaped the session.

In June 2019, Alinejad posted to social media a video of plainclothes police dragging away a 15-year-old girl for refusing an order to cover her head. Police later confirmed the arrest.

Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi is an activist for human rights and women’s rights and critic of the Iranian regime. She serves as deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Center. She has called for civil disobedience in protest of mandatory hijab; has criticized the regime’s widespread use of the death penalty and solitary confinement; and, while imprisoned, authored a report describing physical and sexual violence against women in Iranian prisons. In 2023, Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The authorities have arrested Mohammadi 13 times for her activism, and she has spent more than 12 years in prison. In February 2023, she was sentenced to 10 years and nine months for propaganda against the state. In January 2024, a Revolutionary Court sentenced Mohammadi to 15 further months’ imprisonment and two years in exile outside Tehran. She is currently serving her sentence in the notoriously brutal Evin Prison. 

In May 2024, Mohammadi announced that she would be put on trial again for “spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic” because she had recorded an audio post decrying the regime’s “full-scale war against women.”

Crackdown on Protests against Acid Attacks

The authorities have cracked down on activists protesting “acid attacks,” in which assailants throw acid on women who purportedly engaged in “immoral” behavior. One such activist, Alieh Motalebzadeh was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on October 11, 2020, for “conspiracy against state security” through her advocacy. The regime also arrested and prosecuted Negar Masoudi, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, for holding an exhibition of photos of acid attack victims and urging that the purchase and sale of acid be prohibited. She was tried for “propaganda against the regime” and “conspiring against national security.” In 2022, Masoudi was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for “acting against national security and propaganda against the regime,” but her prison sentence was commuted. She was also fined 800 million rial (about $19,000 U.S. dollars in 2024) for “provocation of indecency and prostitution.” 

Iranian law requires women and men to sit in separate areas in public transportation, at public weddings, and in university classes; to attend separate schools (even preschools); and to use separate entrances to some airports, universities, and public buildings. Women generally may not attend men’s sporting events—such as soccer matches—in public stadiums.

Iranian family and inheritance laws generally favor men over women.

As noted above, men may have up to four wives—and enter into an unlimited number of “temporary marriages”—while women are only allowed one husband. A female virgin of any age wishing to marry requires the permission of her father or grandfather or a court. Men may divorce their wives for any reason or none at all, while women only have the right to divorce under certain conditions. Muslim women, unlike Muslim men, may not marry non-Muslims.

In divorce cases, Iranian law generally grants custody of children seven and older to their fathers, while women are usually granted custody of children until the latter turns seven.  

Women require their husbands’ permission to obtain a passport and travel abroad. Husbands are legally allowed to determine where the family lives and to prevent their wives from engaging in certain vocations.  

A law enacted in 2020 offers the possibility of Iranian citizenship for the children of Iranian women married to non-citizens. Previously, only male Iranians were entitled to pass their citizenship to their children.

However, even under the new law, citizenship for children born of Iranian women and foreign husbands is not automatically given—women must apply for citizenship for their children, or the children may themselves apply after turning 18. Applicants must be screened for “security problems” and cleared by the intelligence ministry and the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meaning that children of parents viewed as critical of the regime could be denied citizenship.  

By law, upon the death of a childless man, his widow is entitled to inherit only one-quarter of his estate. If he has children, the widow’s share is reduced to one-eighth. A widower, by contrast, inherits one-half of his childless wife’s property and one-quarter if she has children. If a man had multiple wives, the standard widow’s inheritance is divided equally among them.

Similarly, while a man is legally entitled to inherit all forms of property in the event of his wife’s death, a widow only has the right to inherit a portion of the value of her husband’s land—not the land itself. Consequently, other inheritors may pay the widow her share of the land’s value and then evict her from the property.

Each son of a deceased person inherits twice as much as each daughter.

Sources (unless otherwise noted): U.S. Department of State, United Nations, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.