Iran International
Hardliners in Iran have seized on oblique remarks made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier this week as a green light to crack down on women who have shunned the hijab amid lax enforcement in recent years.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1979 US embassy takeover on Monday, Khamenei urged women to remind those around them to observe Islamic dress codes.
“Remind the women around you to view the hijab as a religious, Islamic, Zahra-like and Zeynab-like matter,” he said, referring to early Islamic matriarchs.
The word choice was careful and subtle, but more than enough for the intended audience.
Following the speech, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told prosecutors and citizens they “have a duty to carry out (the religious duty of) commanding good and forbidding evil,” promising full judicial backing for such actions.
Conservative voices quickly circulated Khamenei’s comments on social media, portraying them as permission to confront unveiled women.
“Does our dear Leader’s order mean anything but jihad of explanation and to command good? May those who claim he has compromised on Sharia and hijab be struck dumb!” one ultra-hardliner wrote on X.
Another posted: “Once again the Leader of the Ummah himself intervened, reminding us of the duty to enjoin hijab and forbid indecency—both in positive and preventive ways.”
Writer Mohammad Nikbakht interpreted the remarks as signaling a softer, bottom-up approach, arguing that Khamenei meant that hijab enforcement should start within families, “not through morality police, legislation, fines, or arrests.”
Rare intervention
Khamenei has rarely addressed hijab directly in the past year.
In April 2023, he accused foreign intelligence services of encouraging Iranian women to disobey the mandatory hijab and declared such defiance “religiously and politically haram.”
That statement spurred a short-lived official campaign to restore control after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
He did not revisit the issue publicly until now, and earlier this year appeared to sidestep an ultra-hardline lawmaker’s question about why the law had not been implemented.
Law stalled
Iran’s Parliament passed the “Hijab and Chastity Law” in September 2024, imposing sweeping new restrictions. But the Supreme National Security Council quietly suspended its enforcement amid fears of renewed unrest.
That decision was widely viewed as carrying Khamenei’s consent, but his latest remarks are now being read by hardliners as a cue to resume implementation.
In late March, police even dispersed about two dozen pro-hijab vigilantes who had camped outside parliament for over 45 days; no arrests were reported.
A user named Seyyedeh lamented online: “How many people can we warn? How long can we walk the streets? Unveiling has spread everywhere like locusts. God, take our revenge on these traitorous, indifferent officials who have no honor!!”
Political rift, rising defiance
Officials fear that reviving morality patrols or tightening hijab rules amid economic hardship could reignite mass protests.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said he cannot enforce the law and insists that only “dialogue” can persuade women—a stance conservatives blame for paralysis.
Senior Revolutionary Guards general Hassan-Nia rebuked him this week: “Dialogue won’t fix the problem. Firm action is required. If the Leader permits, we will tear the skin off their heads.”
Meanwhile, defiance keeps growing, even in religious cities such as Qom and Mashhad.
In Tehran, unveiled women now outnumber those covered in many neighborhoods, and social media is filled with scenes of mixed gatherings, music, dancing, and women in crop tops.
“Yes, we say there shouldn’t be excessive policing,” former conservative parliament deputy speaker Ali Motahari told Pezeshkian, “but who is supposed to stop a woman who walks around with her belly button exposed?”
The city’s water resources are in exponential decline, Reza Haji-Karim, head of Iran’s Water Industry Federation, told the website Didban Iran.
“Water rationing should have started much earlier. Right now, 62 percent of Tehran’s water comes from underground sources, and the level of these aquifers has dropped sharply.”
The crisis, he said, is the result of years of neglecting scientific warnings about groundwater depletion and climate change.
“The only way to save Tehran is through a chain of measures – from wastewater recycling and consumption reform to cutting agricultural water use,” he added.
Unannounced rationing begins
Residents of Tehran have reported repeated overnight water cuts in several districts in recent days. The Tehran Water and Wastewater Company said the outages are intended to refill storage tanks and prevent the city’s distribution network from collapsing.
Local media outlets reported that nightly rationing has already started in parts of the capital and now continues until early morning hours.
The government may be forced to reduce water pressure to almost zero at night when demand is low, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said Saturday, urging households to install storage tanks.
"Pipeline infrastructure in our country is more than 100 years old; the pipes have become worn out, and some of them were also damaged during the 12-day war" with Israel in June, the minister said.
Presidential warning and vanishing reserves
President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Thursday that if rainfall does not resume by the end of autumn, Tehran will face water rationing, adding, “If it still doesn’t rain, we will have no water and will have to evacuate the city.”
The Tehran Regional Water Company has said that the capital’s five major dams are now only 11 percent full.
Ali Shariat, secretary-general of the Water Industry Federation, blamed the deepening crisis on “mismanagement and fragmented decisions in agriculture and industry.”
“My honest advice to the public is to take the president’s words very seriously. He has told the truth – bitter but undeniable,” he added.
“Continued inaction may lead to forced migration from Tehran,” Shariat added.
Dams near collapse
A video posted on social media on Thursday showed the dry bed of the Latian Dam near Tehran, whose manager said only half of its remaining 10 percent capacity can be used. Officials in neighboring Alborz province reported that the Karaj Dam is now more than 90 percent empty, with only seven percent of its reservoir remaining.
Tehran, home to nearly nine million people, depends on five dams – all reporting sharp declines.
The Laar and Mamloo reservoirs are at 1% and 7% capacity respectively, while only Taleghan remains above one-third.
This comes as the meteorological organization forecasts no significant rainfall for the rest of November.
Tehran is experiencing one of the driest periods in the past 50 years, according to the energy ministry. If current trends persist, officials warn, the city may run out of drinkable water within weeks.
The event, titled “You Will Kneel Before Iranians Again,” was attended by government officials and supporters, many of whom appeared in diverse styles of dress, including without the mandatory Islamic head covering.
Images shared on social media showed no sign of the strict dress enforcement typically seen in public spaces.
The relaxed atmosphere contrasted sharply with the intensified street enforcement of hijab laws. In recent weeks, authorities have resumed arrests, public warnings, and the closure of businesses such as cafes and restaurants for noncompliance with compulsory dress codes.
In previous years, the government has relaxed hijab enforcement at certain high-profile state events – such as Guards Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani’s funeral or major state-organized marches – to project a more moderate image while maintaining repressive controls in daily life.
Contradictions in official behavior
Two days before the ceremony, Asadollah Jafari, the judiciary chief of Isfahan province, called unveiling “a disruptive act” and urged judicial officers to intervene.
“Some individuals, by engaging in and openly displaying norm-breaking behavior, offend public decency. Since these individuals commit an act that violates the law, their actions constitute an evident crime, and judicial officers must carry out their legal duty,” he said.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the Supreme Leader’s representative and editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, has been one of the most outspoken voices against easing hijab enforcement.
In an editorial on November 1, he wrote that the spread of unveiled women had reached “a worrying level” and described the trend as “a home-wrecking and decency-destroying phenomenon.”
“What is deeply concerning is that some who speak about confronting semi-nudity make no mention of banning unveiling – as if unveiling itself has ceased to be forbidden by religion, law, or humanity, and one must only be careful that it does not turn into full nudity.”
Meanwhile, numerous reports have emerged of business closures over hijab violations in recent weeks, with police insisting that all public venues must enforce dress codes or face shutdown.
The sight of unveiled women at a government celebration in Tehran, while morality patrols reappear across the country, has highlighted the Islamic Republic’s double standard – using selective leniency in public displays even as everyday enforcement grows harsher.
Residents say water has been shut off from midnight until around 5 a.m. in recent nights.
“Despite repeated denials by officials, it appears the process of rationing has started” and citizens in parts of the capital “are deprived of water during the night,” Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the judiciary, wrote.
The daily Haft-e Sobh likewise reported sudden five-to-six-hour overnight cuts in drinking water across several districts, all without prior notice.
Reduced pressure across the city, the paper said, and declining surface and groundwater reserves had led to “serious instability” in Tehran’s water network.
The outages have lasted long enough to affect even households with backup storage tanks, according to the report.
Rising frustration
Haft-e Sobh quoted residents as saying the sudden shutdowns disrupted daily life. “When the water is cut off at night, we don’t know when it will return, so we can’t plan our use. Even tanks empty quickly,” one resident said.
President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on November 6 that if rain does not arrive by December, water will have to be rationed across Tehran, adding that prolonged drought could even force evacuation of the city.
The head of Tehran’s provincial water company recently described the capital’s situation as “red and concerning.”
Health and cost concerns
Unannounced rationing, Haft-e Sobh warned, could hinder hygiene and household routines dependent on steady water access. Unreliable supply may increase health risks in residential buildings and impose higher costs on families forced to rely on water tanks or delivery services, it added.
Meteorological data show 20 provinces have gone more than six weeks without measurable rainfall.
No precipitation has fallen in Tehran since the start of autumn, Mohammadreza Kavianpour, head of Iran’s Water Research Institute, said on Thursday warning that forecasts show the drought is likely to persist through the season.
“The risk of water scarcity in the capital must be taken very seriously,” Kavianpour said.
Tehran’s supply depends heavily on the Karaj Dam, whose remaining reserves are sufficient for only two weeks of drinking water.
Environmental experts say years of over-extraction, unscientific dam-building and poor management have pushed the country toward what some describe as “water bankruptcy.”
