“The Security Council has instructed us not to implement the hijab (headscarf) law,” said Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf.
Although parliament passed the law, the Security Council’s decision takes precedence according to Ghalibaf, the Entekhab news site reported.
The Iranian Security Council is the nation’s highest decision-making body and under the constitution can also revise decisions made by parliament and the government.
The law, passed last year by Islamic hardliners in parliament, imposes heavy fines, withdrawal of public services and, for repeat offences, prison sentences on women who fail to cover their hair in public.
The law was originally supposed to be implemented in December last year, but was postponed due to massive protests at home and abroad. The government then vetoed the law and announced changes.
Critics of the law include President Massoud Peseshkian, a moderate conservative who fears renewed unrest if the law is implemented.
But hardliners in parliament are demanding the law be enacted, arguing Islamic values must be preserved to prevent a “Western cultural invasion.”
In Iran, women are required by Islamic law to wear a long jacket and a headscarf to cover their whole body except their faces and hands though in larger cities, women often ignore the rule in protest.
Opposition to the law has been soaring with mass protests staged under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” after the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the autumn of 2022.
She was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes by incorrectly wearing her headscarf and died shortly after in custody.
GNA
PDC