An intensifying crackdown over women’s rights in Iran was laid bare this week when Iranian parliament member Kamran Ghazanfari declared that financial penalties for women refusing to wear the compulsory hijab are inadequate, insisting that only imprisonment can serve as an effective deterrent. Ghazanfari’s public comments, made from the floor of Iran’s Majlis, come amid a new wave of enforcement against non-compliance with the country’s strict dress codes and deep frustration among swathes of the Iranian population, especially women and girls who have led civil resistance campaigns since the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.
Criticizing the regime’s recent approach of issuing fines or warnings, Ghazanfari suggested that treating hijab violations with anything less than incarceration represents a fundamental abdication of state authority, mockingly comparing it to pardoning thieves and asking them to abstain from future crimes. He dismissed arguments that such strict laws are divisive, likening hijab law to universally accepted public safety legislation, such as the requirement to wear seat belts, and further warned that a lax approach could lead Iran’s cities to become ungoverned “jungles.” The parliamentarian’s intervention exemplifies the hardline stance of the Islamic Republic’s current leadership and its commitment to strict social controls rooted in its founding revolutionary ideology.
Mandatory hijab has symbolized the broader network of state-enforced religious rules since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It has long been a source of social contention, widely recognized by Western democracies, human rights organizations, and Iran’s own population as a primary means of state control and gender-based oppression. The government’s morality police, known for aggressive street patrols and arbitrary detentions, have escalated enforcement, particularly after Mahsa Amini’s death set off mass protests and global condemnation of Iran’s methods. The protests—still ongoing in various forms despite harsh repression—have involved acts of civil disobedience in public spaces, with many women removing or burning hijabs in a visible rejection of state authority.
Iranian authorities have coupled public pronouncements with concrete legislation: parliamentary proposals since 2023 aim to increase punishments for unveiled women, adding longer prison sentences, movement bans, and broader social penalties. Internationally reputable sources, including Amnesty International and United Nations Special Rapporteurs, have documented hundreds of protest-related deaths, arbitrary detentions, and reports of torture or mistreatment in custody. Such violations draw ongoing criticism from the governments of Israel, European states, and the United States, who see these patterns as part of a wider campaign to silence internal dissent, export authoritarian models abroad, and perpetuate instability throughout the region.
Israeli officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly linked Iran’s domestic repression to its external destabilizing activities. Israel’s security leadership emphasizes that the same regime orchestrating crackdowns against its own citizens is also the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the region. The government’s ideological, economic, and military support has enabled organizations such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and militia networks in Iraq and Syria to launch campaigns of violence and destabilization. This regional axis is widely described by Western security analysts as the gravest current threat to Israel’s existence, especially following the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, which marked the deadliest anti-Jewish violence since World War II and was carried out with open Iranian backing.
Ghazanfari and the hardliners’ rhetoric that the hijab crisis is a frivolous domestic squabble or foreign-inspired division omits the pattern of systemic rights violations and the lived reality of millions of Iranian women. The enforcement of dress codes represents not only a persistent attempt to curtail personal freedoms but also an assertion of state power at a time of pronounced economic, political, and social crisis. Western governments characterize Tehran’s strategy as an effort to contain internal unrest while simultaneously projecting power through regional proxies and asymmetric warfare. This approach, they argue, runs counter to international law and democratic values, and raises the risk of further regional instability.
Iranian authorities, for their part, regularly allege that the protest movement is the result of foreign conspiracy—a narrative intended to delegitimize dissent and justify repression while fueling anti-Western and anti-Israel sentiment. However, reporting from international news agencies and rights organizations repeatedly finds that the grievances of Iranian protesters are overwhelmingly rooted in local conditions: economic hardship, political exclusion, and a regime increasingly reliant on force rather than consensus. The latest call from Ghazanfari for stiffer penalties signals not only the regime’s refusal to reform, but also its strategic calculation that only escalation can maintain control in the short term.
Reportage from major outlets and government statements—both official and from diplomatic sources—leave little ambiguity as to the stakes of Iran’s internal struggle. For Israel and its Western allies, the defense of women’s rights and support for individual freedom in Iran are inseparable from the campaign to counter Iranian-sponsored terrorism and defend international security. Analysts warn that the continued suppression of fundamental freedoms in Iran is likely to further entrench Tehran’s radical regional agenda, deepening conflict zones and humanitarian crises from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria, and beyond. As a result, international observers advocate for unified diplomatic, economic, and informational pressure on the Iranian regime alongside the strategic containment of its military ambitions—both to support the aspirations of Iran’s embattled population and to safeguard regional and global security.
In sum, Ghazanfari’s remarks have not only reignited debate over the hijab law but have illuminated for the global public the deeper struggle taking place in Iran—a confrontation between a regime determined to enforce moral conformity through force, and millions yearning for basic rights, dignity, and a future free from repression. The outcomes of these struggles, weighted by regional instability and the threat of Iranian-backed terror, will continue to command the attention of Israel, the West, and democratic societies worldwide.
