TEHERAN - In the first days of the Iranian New Year holiday in March, police showed up at a cafe in Teheran with orders to shut it down for two days.
Emboldened since the women-led protests that broke out last autumn, which turned into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic Republic, growing numbers of Iranian women have started going around without headscarves and wearing Western-style clothes.“In all honesty, we didn’t get upset when they shut down our cafe,” said Mr Mohammad, who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid further legal repercussions.
It closed 150 businesses in just 24 hours for serving improperly veiled women. It also announced thatWomen seen on surveillance footage going unveiled in public could be prosecuted, and those caught driving without a headscarf could have their cars impounded, police said. But the announcement suggests the use of surveillance to enforce the hijab may become far more widespread, although details are scarce about the government’s technology.
Customers and tourists would no longer come, they said, adding that people were too used to their newly claimed freedom and would simply go elsewhere.Ms Fahimeh, 40, who works in the beauty and fashion industry in Teheran and has been flouting the hijab law, said that while she opposed “bullying” by authorities, “I, for one, don’t want my freedom at the cost of another person suffering.