Under Islamic laws enforced in Iran since the 1979 revolution, women are required to cover their hair and body in public and avoid tight-fitting clothing
When Khamenei issued his fatwa against women riding bikes in September 2016, he said that “women often attract the attention of male strangers and expose society to debauchery, and thus contravene women’s chastity, and it must be abandoned.”
For more than a year now, the “Girls of Revolution Street” (and a few men) have conducted sporadic one-person protests against the hijab by removing their head scarves and waving them in crowded public spaces in the capital
Nevertheless, the general public still harasses and abuses them, and families often shun them. Discrimination in the workplace has forced some into prostitution and others to kill themselves
Hashemi appeared to place much of the blame for the country’s current problems on the hard-liners, accusing them of interpreting religion to serve their own interests and “trampling on everything” to remain in power