Iran: Khamenei proposes (slightly) more forgiving tones on headscarves Founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX pleads not guilty

Iran’s head of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has taken a more conciliatory note on the headscarf requirement.

“Bad or loose headscarves are not good. But that doesn’t mean we should see them in opposition to religion and revolution,” Iran’s religious leader told Irna news agency on Wednesday. “We all have weaknesses that we need to fix, and anything we can fix will get better.” Strict Islamic dress codes were introduced in Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and are also monitored.

Iran’s political leadership has been under immense strain since nationwide protests erupted in mid-September. Following the death of Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody, Tehran plunged into its worst political crisis in decades. The 22-year-old was arrested more than three months ago for violating Iran’s Islamic dress code.

The protests that followed, which also targeted the Islamic rule system, were violently suppressed. In the meantime, more and more women without headscarves can be seen in public in the metropolises of Iran. While the so-called vice police, which also arrested Amini, have almost completely disappeared from the streets, the mandatory wearing of a headscarf would be followed by other methods, such as video surveillance. (aeg/sda/dpa)