An engineer strode onstage at an occasion in Tehran, Iran, using tight trousers and a stylish shirt, and clutching a microphone in one hand.

Her long brown hair, tied in a ponytail, swung freely behind her, revealed, in open defiance of Irans rigorous hijab law.

I am Zeinab Kazempour, she informed the convention of Irans expert association of engineers.

She condemned the group for supporting the hijab rules, and then she marched offstage, eliminating a headscarf from around her neck and tossing it to the flooring under a huge picture of Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The packed auditorium erupted in cheers, claps and whistles.

A video of Kazempour went viral on social networks and local news websites, making her the most recent champion for numerous Iranians in a growing, open obstacle to the hijab law.Women have resisted the law, discovering their hair an inch or a hair at a time, since it entered into result two years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

But given that the death last year of Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of the countrys morality police, females and girls have been at the center of a nationwide uprising, requiring an end not only to hijab requirements however to the Islamic Republic itself.Women are all of a sudden flaunting their hair: left long and streaming in the shopping centers; incorporated a bun on the streets; styled into bobs on mass transit; and pulled into ponytails at schools and on university campuses, according to interviews with ladies in Iran in addition to photos and videos online.

These acts of defiance are rarer in more conservative areas, they are increasingly being seen in towns and cities.

I have actually not worn a scarf for months-- I do not even carry it with me anymore, said Kimia, 23, a graduate student in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, in western Iran, who, like other females talked to for this short article, asked that her surname not be used for fear of retribution.Kimia said that numerous female students at her college did not cover their hair even in classrooms in the existence of male professors.

Whether the federal government likes to admit it or not, she said, the period of the forced hijab is over.

Irans hijab law mandates that females and women older than 9 cover their hair and that they hide the curves of their bodies under long, loose robes.Many females still abide by the guideline in public, some by choice and others from fear.

Videos of the traditional marketplace in downtown Tehran, the capital, for example, show most ladies covering their hair.But videos of parks, coffee shops, dining establishments and shopping malls-- locations popular with younger ladies-- reveal more of them exposed.

Lots of prominent ladies, consisting of celebrities and athletes, have actually removed their hijab in Iran and while representing the country abroad.The state has long promoted the hijab law as a symbol of its success in establishing the Islamic Republic, but enforcement has actually varied, depending upon which political faction remained in power.After the election in 2021 of Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-liner, as president, the rules have been progressively enforced, and with a strictness and brutality that have enraged Iranian women, a number of whom were fined, beaten or apprehended by the morality cops after they were said to be in violation.But anger over the law boiled over in September, when Amini died in the custody of the morality cops and as the street demonstrations that broke out across Iran quickly morphed into wider calls for an end to being ruled by the countrys clerics.The protests have actually mostly fizzled amidst a violent crackdown by authorities that has included mass arrests, death sentences and the executions of 4 young protesters.But numerous acts of civil disobedience continue daily, consisting of chanting death to the dictator from rooftops, writing graffiti on walls, and taking down and firing federal government banners.And women have been going out in public without their hijabs.Officials said in December they had actually dissolved the morality police, and they have not been seen on the streets considering that.

For the minute, authorities are just sometimes implementing the hijab rules, according to females and activists in Iran.Authorities recently shut down 2 drug stores-- one in Tehran and another in the northern city of Amol-- after female staff members were reported for not using a hijab.

And in the religious city of Qom, they reprimanded the supervisor of a bank for accommodating customers without hijabs.

The judiciary has also opened a case versus Kazempour, according to Iranian news reports.Officials say they are evaluating the enforcement guidelines and strategy to reveal upgraded measures.

One conservative legislator has said alternative enforcement techniques are being thought about, such as cautioning females by text message, rejecting them civic services or obstructing their checking account.

Headscarves will be back on womens heads, the lawmaker, Hossein Jalali, was reported as saying in December on Iranian media.But the defiance stays too widespread to include and too pervasive to reverse, femaless rights activists say.

The core and heart of this movement is really the advanced act of these females turning their headscarves into the most reliable and most effective weapon against spiritual dictatorship and deep layers of misogyny and patriarchy, said Fatemeh Shams, a femaless rights activist and an assistant teacher of Persian literature at the University of Pennsylvania.The women who have stopped covering their hair state that they are identified to do as they want, but that they favor a voluntary hijab.

They likewise say they respect the rights of women who pick wear scarves.Leila, 51, who lives in Tehran, said she and her teenage child had actually been dressing in public as they carried out in private and when they traveled abroad-- in dresses, skirts, skinny jeans and tight sweatshirts.

I just recently had to take a trip and struggled over whether I need to wear the hijab at the airport since there are a lot of security agents, however decided against it, Leila stated in a telephone interview.

She was shocked to see that the majority of the women at the airport that day had actually likewise dropped their hijabs.

We all got through security and passport control with our hair exposed, and they stated nothing.

Our power remains in numbers.

Hathis, 25, who reviews books and films online, posted a photo of herself on Instagram in December sitting, hair exposed, with a good friend at an outdoor coffee shop in Tehran.

Is this what it feels like to feel the cool fall breeze blow through your hair? And for 25 years I was denied this? Even lots of spiritual women who use a hijab by choice have actually signed up with the campaign to repeal the law.

A petition with thousands of names and photographs of ladies is flowing on Instagram and Twitter with the message, I use the hijab, but I protest the mandatory hijab.

Maryam, 53, who observes the hijab law and lives in Tehran, just recently took a trip with her daughter to the vacation island of Kish in the Persian Gulf.

They were shocked to discover most ladies wearing short-sleeved sun gowns, shoes, capri pants and T-shirts.

Are we in Turkey or Iran? asked her daughter, Narges, 26.

Soon after the trip, Narges altered all of her social media profile images to one in which her long brown hair was flowing over her shoulders and her fist was raised in the air.

It revealed to her spiritual conservative family that she was removing her hijab.

I will never ever bring down my fist up until liberty, even if we have to await several years, Narges wrote on her Instagram page.Maryam said in an interview that she was flooded with messages and calls from loved ones and pals, some supportive and some crucial of her child.

I told them that times have actually altered, she said.

I appreciate my childs option therefore must you.

Its nobodys service.