A woman in the central Iranian province of Kerman has been killed during a confrontation between her family and a group of individuals enforcing the mandatory hijab policy as tensions over the policy remain high.
The trouble started when a group arrived at a tourist site and accused the women from one family of failing to comply with the country's strict hijab rules. The disagreement escalated and turned physical, resulting in the death of Kolsoom Oftadepour.
Sources told RFERL's Radio Farda that several women repeatedly warned a young girl to "fix her scarf" but she ignored them and entered the tourist site with her family.
The altercation grew, with women and men hurling sexual insults at the family, before one woman attacked Kolsoom Oftadepour, her daughter, and granddaughter with a slipper. Police officers arrived at the scene and sided with the hijab enforcers, sources say. The family is expected to appear in court on May 9.
The incident comes amid heated debate about Iran's mandatory hijab policy, which has been enforced since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
More and more women have been protesting and defying the dress code, leading to increased tensions and confrontations between citizens and so-called "morality police."
Anger over the rules boiled over in September 2022 with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody for an alleged head-scarf offense.
Thousands of women and girls have since taken to the streets to protest against the government's interference in their daily lives. Many have taken their hijabs and burned them in protest in what is one of the stiffest challenges to the Islamic leadership since the 1979 revolution.
In recent weeks, there have been several reports of plainclothes security agents appearing in public spaces throughout the country, warning women to observe the mandatory hijab law.
Official Iranian media outlets, as well as activists, have given differing accounts of the events leading to Kalsoom's death.
While some initially referred to the enforcers as "bus passengers visiting the grave of Qasem Soleimani," others claimed it was a "collective dispute."
Sources close to the Oftadepour family have rejected such allegations, insisting that Kalsoom's death must not be trivialized and calling for the identification of the harassers.
RFE/RL has learned that Oftadepour's family has come under intense pressure from officials to refrain from sharing information or giving interviews to the media.
The hijab became mandatory in Iran shortly after the 1979 revolution by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic. However, no law was passed at that time restricting women's clothing in Iran.
Despite more than four decades of compulsory hijab enforcement under the Islamic republic, Iran has recently seen widespread and comprehensive protests condemning the compulsory hijab and demanding the overthrow of the Islamic republic system.