In her store in central Tehran, Paria Sanyari sells short blouses that reveal the stomach and short skirts, which many Iranian women have now worn in public places. But she still wears long coats in front, to avoid trouble with the authorities.
For decades, the store's customers were mostly women who were accustomed to modest dress imposed by strict rules implemented since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which included covering the head and neck, according to Agence France-Presse.
Today, the 47-year-old merchant is adapting her offerings to attract younger customers who accept greater freedom in choosing their clothes, despite the existing legal restrictions.
“We can no longer force this new generation to wear the hijab,” she says. “They want to be free.”
Compliance with the hijab rules has become sporadic since the 2022 protests, which followed the death of Mahsa Amini in detention after she was arrested on charges of violating the dress code.
But the shift in women's clothing became clearer with the increasing political and economic pressures resulting from the wars with the United States and Israel, and with protests against the high cost of living that reached their peak in January.
Women's dress in the street, especially in Tehran, is no longer limited to abandoning the head covering. It has extended to cropped blouses, sleeveless shirts, ripped jeans and short skirts.
However, the widening margin of freedom has not yet reached the front of Sinyari. “We cannot display torn jeans, nor can we dress mannequins in very short skirts,” she says. “We hope that these restrictions will be lifted in some way eventually.”
“abnormal behavior”
Despite the shift in the streets, mandatory hijab rules remain in effect, and the new norms are meeting with stiff resistance from conservatives.
The “Leadership Experts Council” entered the file, and in its statement on Thursday linked “the promotion of social deviations, especially in the field of chastity and the hijab,” to what it called “the enemies’ efforts to collapse society from within,” and called on the concerned agencies to “perform their legal duties.”
The representative of the Iranian leader and Friday preacher of Mashhad, Ahmad Alam al-Huda, said, “Uncovering in the country has become a custom.” He added: “At a time when our fighters are fighting on the front, the enemy wants to take everything from us from within.” He called on government agencies to “combat and prevent vulgarity,” describing it as “a violation of the law.” The representative of the Iranian leader and Shiraz Friday preacher, Abu al-Fadl Razavi Ardakani, called on institutions, government departments, banks, and companies to oblige their employees to follow the rules of the hijab.
On Tuesday, Iran announced the arrest of a number of people in central Tehran on charges of “promoting the removal of the hijab and nudity in public places,” after the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, called for action against what he called “unnatural behavior” in the streets.
The Public Prosecution in Tehran said that the detainees are linked to “organized movements promoting the removal of the hijab” on Iranshahr Street in the center of the capital, and that judicial dealing with them continues in coordination with law enforcement forces.
In late October, the Public Prosecutor in Tehran, Ali Salehi, called on the intelligence agencies and the Revolutionary Guard to identify and deal with what he called “organized gangs that promote corruption.” He warned government managers against “negligence,” and said that 28 executive agencies bear legal responsibilities in this file, and asked the Inspection Authority to review its performance within a month. He threatened to prosecute “the licensing authority and the violating person” if they “violate norms” in public places.
The prosecution filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the “Art Fair Tehran” art exhibition, and closed their account on social media, after pictures of women without hijab spread at the exhibition that was held in the “Iran Mall” complex.
Last week, the ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper described removing the hijab as a “destructive weapon” used by Iran’s enemies in the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the guide’s representative in Kayhan, wrote, “Confronting the unveiling is a crucial part of the war.” He said that “the enemy was defeated in the military confrontation with Islamic Iran,” and that he was waging his war in the economic and cultural arenas “with a particular focus on spreading the phenomenon of indecentness,” based on what he described as “undeniable documents.”
Representative Hassan Ali Akhlaqi Amiri said that talk about abandoning hijab laws is “completely false,” and called for measures to implement them.
But Nyusha, a pseudonym for a 57-year-old woman who works in a jewelry store, believes that the authorities seem to be turning a blind eye more and more to women’s clothing, in order to avoid widespread protests and unrest like the one the country witnessed in 2022.
“The authorities have given people a little bit of extra freedom at the moment, so they don’t make a fuss, stay where they are, and say: ‘Okay, everything is fine, everything is great,’” she says.
These days, Nyusha usually goes out without a head covering, but she makes sure to wear it where it is expected. She told Agence France-Presse while walking in central Tehran: “Now, for example, I do not wear it, because I see other women without the hijab. But if I go to a place where I feel I have to abide by the rules of the hijab, then I must abide by it. “No one knows, they might suddenly stop you and harass you over something trivial.”
Prominent actresses appeared without the obligatory hijab, including Nakar Javaherian, Sahar Dolshahi, and Kohar Khairandesh, at the funeral ceremony for former Iranian national team player Hamid Ali Dosti, father of actress Taraneh Ali Dosti, on November 6 at a mosque in western Tehran. Official media outlets, including IRNA, published photos of only the men present.
Khatib asked at one of the night gatherings organized by the Iranian leader’s supporters in Tehran: “What right does Taraneh Ali Dosti have to enter the stadium without a hijab?”
Caution continues
Ali Reda, a 42-year-old clothing store owner who has been in the business for 29 years, added shorter shirts and coats to his offerings, but kept the long coats.
“Some women still wear long coats because their Islamic beliefs are more conservative,” he says. “It really depends on personal taste and convictions.”
Ali Reda does not mind easing restrictions, but he believes that “the Islamic hijab and appropriate standards of modesty must be observed,” and that people should avoid “revealing clothing.”
In northern Tehran, Maryam, a 38-year-old fashion designer who sells her designs online, says that wearing “whatever you like” has become easier, but she remains cautious in the way she presents her work to her Instagram followers.
She publishes photos of her designs, including revealing evening dresses, short skirts, and tight pants, in multi-image publications, and postpones photos of the models to later slides without showing their faces. Its posts are written in English to suggest that the page is not local.
She says: “Of course I am afraid that the authorities will interrogate me. These restrictions still exist. “We cannot be sure that everything is completely fine.”
The Iranian President’s advisor for clerical affairs, Ali Imad, said in late October that “the issue of the hijab, addiction, and extravagance in Iranian society must be resolved,” and that “people expect us to emerge from these circumstances with foresight and rationality,” according to ISNA.
The International Atomic Energy Agency expressed “increasing concern” about a uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan that Iran announced last year, but it has not allowed inspectors to enter it yet, and said that it does not know its exact location or whether it contains nuclear materials.
The United Nations agency said in its confidential quarterly report on Iran’s nuclear program that it distributed to member states on Friday: “The agency does not know the exact location of the Isfahan fuel enrichment facility, nor its status for safeguards purposes, nor whether it contains nuclear materials.”
The report went further than the Isfahan facility, as the agency stated that it “cannot confirm that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear materials from peaceful nuclear activities in Iran,” stressing that its lack of information about these materials and access to facilities to verify them “raises serious concerns about nuclear proliferation,” and “requires treatment with the utmost urgency.”
The report comes the day after US President Donald Trump announced that his country does not need an agreement with Iran to end the war he launched with Israel in late February, which he repeatedly said was aimed at preventing Iran from making a nuclear weapon. Since then, no negotiations have been launched to impose international restrictions on Iranian nuclear activity.
Isfahan facility
Iran declared the Isfahan fuel enrichment facility to the agency on June 12, 2025, and agency inspectors intended to inspect it the next day. But the Israeli bombing campaign began on June 13, so the visit was not possible. The United States later joined the 12-day campaign, destroying or severely damaging other Iranian enrichment plants.
The targets included a network of tunnels in Isfahan, where diplomats believe the facility is located, but a senior diplomat told Reuters that its location and status are still unknown.
The agency's director general, Rafael Grossi, said in March that the agency believes that a large amount of Iranian highly enriched uranium is present in the tunnel complex in Isfahan.
In his new report, Grossi expressed “increasing concern that Iran has not allowed it” to inspect the facility or access information about its design, about 17 months after its announcement.
Iran has not allowed IAEA inspectors to return to any of its facilities that were bombed in June 2025. Nuclear facilities were also hit in the latest war, which broke out on February 28, and the agency has repeatedly requested access to them.
“Loss of continuity of knowledge”
“It has been more than a year since the agency lost continuity of knowledge regarding previously declared stocks of highly enriched uranium,” Grossi wrote in the 13-page report.
The agency had estimated, before the June 2025 strikes, that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, which is close to the 90 percent level needed to make a bomb, and far exceeds the 3.67 percent ceiling set by the 2015 agreement, which is no longer in effect.
The agency cannot verify the status or location of this stockpile, nor the location of 8,599.6 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, according to Bloomberg.
The agency did not receive any information from Iran about the status of its nuclear facilities and materials, and was unable to access them, with the exception of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Inspectors visited the station in September, and visits have occurred twice in the past three months.
Before the June 2025 attacks, the agency was conducting almost daily inspections in Iranian facilities, before Tehran restricted inspectors’ access to the bombed facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said that inspectors from the agency visited Bushehr “a few days ago,” and that the Iranian mission in Vienna is in “professional and permanent contact” with the agency. He accused the Board of Governors and the Director General of negligence due to their “inappropriate positions” regarding attacks on nuclear facilities.
Grossi pointed out Iran's "continued refusal" to cooperate with the agency to address the outstanding safeguards issues. The agency acknowledged that “the military attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and sites have created an unprecedented situation.”
“Gradual steps”
The report called for “verification activities in Iran to be conducted without further delay,” and described this as “extremely important.” He said that Grossi "encourages Iran to consider technical and gradual measures to create conditions that allow IAEA inspectors to return to Iran."
He added, "These gradual steps would pave the way for the normal resumption of the application of guarantees in Iran, and would contribute to a confidence-building atmosphere that would help reach a broader agreement."
Grossi said the agency is “fully prepared to resume safeguards activities in Iran at short notice,” but Iran has ruled out a return to regular monitoring “in the current circumstances.” He pointed out that Tehran had not ruled out all forms of cooperation, but the inspectors did not obtain information “regarding the status of any of its other declared nuclear facilities for safeguards purposes.”
Last week, Iran presented a legal argument saying that it is not obligated to submit to full nuclear monitoring as long as it is under the threat of American military attacks. The report presented details of correspondence between the agency and Tehran in recent weeks.
The US State Department offered a reward of $20 million, with the possibility of resettlement, to anyone who provides information about the Iranian nuclear program. Iran criticized the offer earlier this week, describing it as “horrifying” and saying it might prompt agency inspectors to “secretly collect intelligence information” for Washington’s benefit.
Baghaei described the reward as a “sign of the US administration’s confusion,” and said that Washington announced that it had “destroyed the entire Iranian nuclear program,” but it was “spending money generously” to collect information about it.
Grossi responded with a letter to Tehran on November 12, in which he said that his inspectors would work to protect classified information, according to Bloomberg.
Iran accuses the United States and Israel of concealing the legal authority of inspectors to cover their strikes on its nuclear facilities. Twice during the past eighteen months, military action against Iran was followed by the issuance of results by the agency: the first in 2025, and the second before the current war that began in late February.
Trump said last year that the Iranian nuclear program was “wiped out” in the 12-day strikes, but there is little evidence of the extent of Iranian nuclear activity currently, according to Bloomberg.
Board of Governors
The agency's Board of Governors will discuss the report at its meeting in Vienna next week. In September, the Council referred Iran’s file to the UN Security Council due to its “non-compliance,” in Iran’s first referral to the Council in 20 years due to its failure to fulfill reporting obligations on its nuclear activities.
The referral differs from the UN sanctions that were re-imposed on Iran in September 2025 under the “snapback” mechanism in Resolution 2231.
Grossi renewed Iran's demand to allow its inspectors to resume their work, and called for a negotiated settlement of the dispute between the United States and Iran.
The report reaches the Board of Governors as positions harden in Tehran. On Wednesday, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, rejected the exit of “even a single atom” of enriched nuclear material from the country, and said that it would be used in “designing nuclear-powered ships and submarines.”
The Leadership Council of Experts called on Thursday to consider exiting the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and review the defense doctrine, and said that “responsible international institutions cannot be relied upon” in this area. Tehran did not announce a decision to withdraw, and Baghaei said on Monday that Iran is still committed to the treaty.
