Iranian government pushes back as more women forgo hijab

A woman sits outside a cafe in Tehran without wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf (Vahid Salemi/AP)

More women in Iran are choosing not to wear headscarves, months after protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police for wearing her hijab too loosely.

Billboards across the country’s capital proclaim that women should wear their mandatory headscarves to honour their mothers but perhaps for the first time since the chaotic days following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, more women — both young and old — are opting not to.