Iran files charges against marathon organizers after women runners flout hijab law

Hundreds of women seen without veil running at Kish island’s race as Tehran tries to crack down on increasingly ignored modesty laws; prosecutor: event ‘violated public decency’

TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have opened a criminal case against the organizers of a marathon on Kish island, the judiciary said Saturday, after images emerged of women competing without hijab.

More than 5,000 people took part in Friday’s race, according to local media, with images online showing a number of runners who were not following the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women, which was enshrined in law in the early 1980s.

“Despite previous warnings regarding the need to comply with the country’s current laws and regulations, as well as religious, customary, and professional principles… the event was held in a way that violated public decency,” the local prosecutor was quoted as saying in the judiciary’s official news outlet, Mizan Online.

“Considering the violations that occurred and based on the laws and regulations, a criminal case has been filed against the officials and agents organizing this event.”

Conservative-aligned outlets including Tasnim and Fars had earlier condemned the marathon as indecent and disrespectful to Islamic laws enforced after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.

Women in Iran are required to cover their hair and wear modest, loose-fitting clothing in public.

But adherence to the hijab rules has become more sporadic since the mass protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The morality police had arrested the young woman in Tehran for allegedly flouting the strict Islamic dress code for women.

Hundreds of people, including dozens of members of the security forces, were killed during protests across the country, and thousands of demonstrators were arrested and several of them executed.

Earlier this week, a majority of lawmakers in Iran’s parliament accused the judiciary of failing to uphold the hijab law.

Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei later called for stricter enforcement.

Iran’s government under President Masoud Pezeshkian has refused to ratify a bill passed by the parliament that would have imposed tough penalties for women who do not observe the dress code.

Since coming to power in July 2024, Pezeshkian has maintained that women cannot be forced to wear the hijab.

According to a 2014 religious decree, or fatwa, issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, women must dress in such a way as to leave only the face and hands visible.

In May 2023, the head of Iran’s athletics federation resigned after women without headscarves took part in a sporting event in the southern city of Shiraz.