Women in Iran are suddenly flaunting their locks, after more than four decades under a strict law that requires women and girls over 9 to cover their hair in public, says The New York Times.
The current president, Ebrahim Raisi, had enforced it with a strictness and brutality that enraged Iranian women, many of whom were beaten or arrested after they were said to have violated it. Anger over the law boiled in September after a 22-year-old woman, Masha Amini, died in the custody of the morality police, kicking off street protests across Iran.
Authorities are only occasionally enforcing the hijab law now
The protests have largely fizzled amid a violent crackdown, and they are rarer in more conservative areas. But acts of civil disobedience continue daily, and the authorities are only occasionally enforcing the hijab law, according to women and activists in Iran.
Now videos of parks, cafes, restaurants and malls show more women uncovered. Celebrities and athletes have removed their hijabs in Iran and while representing the country abroad.
“Whether the government likes to admit it or not,” said a graduate student in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, in western Iran, “the era of the forced hijab is over.”
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