A video from Iran showing a woman confronting a cleric at an airport in Mehrabad is going viral on social media. In the clip, shared on X by user Navid Mohebbi, the woman, seen without a hijab, angrily removes the cleric’s turban and places it on her head like a scarf during the altercation. “So you have honour now?” she says to the clerk, before searching for her husband and asking “What did you do to my husband?” The exact date and cause of the initial confrontation is unclear.

Sharing the video on X, Mr Mohebbi wrote, “Brave Iranian Woman Confronts A Mullah in Iran. Mehrabad Airport: A woman without a hijab angrily grabs a mullah’s turban and wraps it around her own head. It appears the mullah had previously argued with her”. 

Take a look at the video below:

Brave Iranian Woman Confronts A Mullah in Iran.

Mehrabad Airport: A woman without a hijab angrily grabs a mullah’s turban and wraps it around her own head. It appears the mullah had previously argued with her. pic.twitter.com/MLssxAEauN

— Navid Mohebbi نوید محبی (@navidmohebbi) January 6, 2025

According to Iran International, the woman confronted the cleric for allegedly harassing her about not wearing a hijab. However, Mashregh News, a media outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that the incident was unrelated to hijab. The outlet also claimed that the woman had “psychological problems”. She was detained briefly but later released “with the consent of the complainants”. 

However, social media users disputed Mashregh News’s explanation. One user praised the woman’s “transformation of the turban into a mandatory scarf” as an innovative form of resistance, as per Iran International. “That is a lady who has just had enough. You cannot scare people who reach that point. Courage and its shadow of defiance wins out in the end,” wrote another. 

Also Read | “Odious Act”: Israeli Embassy After Activist Destroys Netanyahu Wax Statue

Some social media users also praised the woman’s actions. “Brave young Iranian woman teaches Iranian cleric a lesson in modesty…A Shiite cleric admonished a young Iranian woman for not wearing a hijab as required at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran…. She didn’t think much of it, approached him, resolutely removed his turban, and turned it,” wrote one user. 

“At Mehrabad Airport, a young woman faces off against a cleric using his turban as a tool to harass and enforce the mandatory hijab. With a powerful gesture, she removes his turban and wears it herself, defying both his authority and the regime’s oppressive rules. A single act, yet it speaks volumes,” expressed another. 

Tehran:

The Iranian state is planning to open a treatment clinic for women who flout the mandatory hijab laws that require them to cover their heads in public. Announcing the opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic”, Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said the establishment will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”.

“The establishment of this center will be for the scientific and psychological treatment of removing the hijab, specifically for the teenage generation, young adults, and women seeking social and Islamic identity and visiting this center is optional,” a report by Iran International quoted Talebi as saying.

Notably, the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice falls under the direct authority of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The body is reportedly responsible for defining and enforcing strict religious standards in Iran, particularly those related to women’s dress.

Move Sparks Outrage

The announcement came weeks after a university student, who stripped down to her underwear on a Tehran campus in an apparent protest at harsh treatment by dress code enforcers, was detained and sent to a psychiatric hospital for mental health treatment.

The news of the new clinic has spread among the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest groups and women, sparking fear and outrage.

Speaking with The Guardian on the condition of anonymity, a young woman from Iran said, “It won’t be a clinic, it will be a prison.”

“We are struggling to make ends meet and have power outages, but a piece of cloth is what this state is worried about. If there was a time for all of us to come back to the streets, it’s now or they’ll lock us all up,” she said. 

According to Iranian human rights lawyer, Hossein Raeesi, the idea of a clinic to treat women who did not comply with hijab laws is “neither Islamic nor aligned with Iranian law”. 

Use Of Psychiatric Facilities To Curb Dissent

Iranian authorities have been widely accused of using mental health institutions to curb the dissent against the strict hijab law. The method has been condemned by human rights advocates as psychologically abusive and manipulative.

Speaking to The Guardian, Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”.

“The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology,” she said.

Since the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement began, hardliners have increased efforts to enforce strict dress codes for women. Artists, including actresses Afsaneh Bayegan, Azadeh Samadi, and Leila Bolukat, who posted images of themselves without a hijab, reportedly received court-ordered mandates for weekly visits to psychological centers for mental health certificates in response to their conduct.

The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement began in Iran after the death of young woman Mahsa Amini in police custody over hijab violations in September 2022.

In another regressive move, The Taliban have banned women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, BBC reported. Afghanistan’s acting minister of virtue and vice, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, said women have not been observing the proper way to wear the hijab while visiting the park.

“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” said Hanafi as he urged security organizations and religious leaders to prohibit women from entering until a solution was found.

”There are complaints about lack of hijab or bad hijab, these are not Bamiyan residents. They come here from other places,” Sayed Nasrullah Waezi, head of the Bamiyan Shia Ulema Council told Tolo news.

Established in April 2009, Band-e-Amir National Park is Afghanistan’s first national park and remains a popular tourist spot. UNESCO describes the park as a “naturally created group of lakes with special geological formations and structure, as well as natural and unique beauty”.

The decision has raised concerns among human rights advocates. ”Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment, and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature, as we see from this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir,” said Heather Barr, the associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.

“Step by step the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison,” she added. 

UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan wrote on X, ”Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Band-e-Amir is necessary to comply with sharia and Afghan culture?”

Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Bande Amir is necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture? #womensrightsarenotnegotiablehttps://t.co/QbC6azYbmm

— UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett (@SR_Afghanistan) August 27, 2023

Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives, ignoring international outrage. A few months back, they barred entry of families and women into restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Herat province, Afghanistan, reported Fox News.

Women in the country are also prohibited from leadership posts, banned from university and secondary education, and not allowed to work as well as travel unless accompanied by a male companion. Many public places, including bathhouses, gyms, and parks, have also been made off-limits for women.