A leaked video of the daughter of Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at her extravagant wedding in a strapless gown, has sparked outrage on social media.
The video, which recently started doing the rounds on the internet, was first shared by Iranian activist Masih Alinejad on X and quickly went viral, drawing over 3,00,000 views and fuelling anger at the regime's "hypocrisy".
Have a look at it here:
Leaked video points at 'double standards'
The video, reportedly filmed in May 2024, shows the bride in a Western-style wedding dress at the Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran, one of the city’s most luxurious venues. The event, said to have cost around 1.4 billion tomans, was attended by members of Iran’s political elite. Scenes of dancing, music and some women without a veil at the celebration starkly contrasted with the strict hijab rules imposed on ordinary citizens.
“The daughter of Ali Shamkhani, one of the Islamic Republic’s top enforcers, had a lavish wedding in a strapless dress. Meanwhile, women in Iran are beaten for showing their hair. They enforce Islamic values with bullets, batons and prisons on everyone but themselves," Alinejad wrote on X.
Outrage over regime's 'hypocrisy'
The video reignited debate about privilege and hypocrisy within Iran’s ruling class. While senior officials and their families indulge in Western-style luxuries, ordinary Iranians continue to face economic hardship under sanctions and rising inflation.
Alinejad’s post also recalled the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini by the morality police, which sparked the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. She further drew parallels between Amini’s death and the regime’s selective enforcement of “Islamic values”, adding that the same authorities who punish women for showing hair allow their own families to flout dress codes without consequence.
Under a new law introduced in June 2025, Iranian women and girls as young as 12 face severe penalties for failing to wear the hijab. The leaked video therefore intensified public anger, with many Iranians accusing the leadership of moral corruption and hypocrisy.
One social media user commented, “They preach modesty while their own daughters parade in designer dresses. The rules are for you, not for them.”
