Women swaying to dance music at a DJ set, strolling without headscarves through cutting-edge art exhibitions and in coffee shops showing off trendy styles that could have come from the streets of Europe.

Until recently, such scenes would have been unthinkable in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose strict dress code for women has required they wear the hijab in public since shortly after the 1979 revolution that ousted the pro-Western shah.

But while casually flouting the rule has become increasingly common, Iran's leadership insists the hijab is a legal obligation and is implementing a crackdown that has seen dissident figures who oppose the mandatory headscarf detained.

The tension has come at a critical moment for the clerical establishment, still recovering from the recent 12-day war with Israel and with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei now 86.

The 2022-2023 nationwide protests, sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini who was arrested over alleged improper hijab, are still a recent memory.

Analysts and activists say authorities in recent months have indeed slackened off on imposing the mandatory hijab in daily life, but are far from abandoning an ideological pillar of the Islamic republic, warning a new wave of repression to re-impose it could come at any time.

Roya Boroumand, cofounder and executive director of the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, said it was "heartwarming" to see images of women without the headscarf, calling it the result of social pressure from below rather than "a........

© Al Monitor