Iranian women cut off their hair, dress as men to avoid moral police

Women in Iran are cutting their hair short and dressing as men to dodge the state’s 'morality' police, which regularly imposes severe penalties for not wearing a hijab.

Recently, a number of women shared photos of themselves in public with their hair uncovered on Instagram and other social media.

The women have cut their hair short in some photos and in others they are dressed in clothes more typically associated with men.

The hijab is becoming an increasingly sensitive issue in Iran as women step up their campaign against it and other oppressive laws.

Earlier this week, Iran arrested eight people for working in “un-Islamic” online modelling networks, particularly on Instagram, the head of Tehran’s cybercrimes court said on state television.



Fearing consequences, many women have now made their profiles private.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has taken a more liberal attitude than his predecessors on the hijab, which has been compulsory for women in the Islamic republic since 1979. However, he has little power to stop those enforcing dress codes.

This article originally appeared on Independent