While important arbitrators in the Islamic world criticize the duty to wear the veil, in Iran today (Wednesday) President Ibrahim Raisi ordered the tightening of enforcement against violations of the country's modesty regulations, despite growing protests over the conduct of modesty guards in Iran.
At a meeting of the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, the president told attending ministers that "we have reports of various organizations working on issues related to modesty and wearing the hijab and they are working through foreign funding to promote the destruction of the mosque in Islamic society."
"The enemies of Iran and Islam are plotting to undermine the cultural cohesion and religious values that are the foundation of our society and they are doing so through various online and satellite channels," the Iranian president added.
"Necessary steps must be taken in this area, against this coordinated and organized attack, in a systematic and thorough manner."
The president instructed ministers and the executive to promote legislation and increase cooperation between law enforcement agencies in a way that would tighten chastity laws and make it easier for authorities to suppress those wearing the hijab.
It is a reversal of the country's previous government policy, which sought ways to ease the controversy surrounding the wearing of the hijab, which has become an open protest in the past decade.
In May, a video was released in the country showing a woman being violently dragged to a police train after refusing to wear a hijab.
The woman is seen squirming on the floor and a woman and a man from the chastity guards are holding her like a sack and trying to load her onto the vehicle.
Iran enacted a law requiring the wearing of the hijab in 1984 and in 2004 the penalties were tightened and an extensive repression mechanism was established that could arrest women for minor offenses in the field of wearing the hijab.
The "My Secret Freedom" movement, whose leader Misach Alinged operates outside the country, still manages to organize a protest against the obligation to wear the hijab and many women, especially in the country's major cities, have previously posted photos of themselves openly calling for the law to be repealed.
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