The identity of the female through state-enforced veil was enforced for more than three decades in Iran by a state constantly needing to revert to the ideology of identity to fight global politics of imposed isolation. Dissent appeared through a crack; where refusal to veil was symbolic of a demand for change, demand for recognition of female emancipation in public and private. The state always fought back, harder every time. However, after the election of a regime composed of reformists, it was hopefully predicted that politics of veils would give way to progressive voices on female subjectivity.

Arab Spring and resulting implosion of pluralistic voices in the Arab works, forced even the Saudi regime premised on a staunch Wahabi ideology, to reconsider the role of females in politics and society. Women in the Kurdish Peshmergas fought the vestiges of the misogynist religious interpretations of ISIS. It was again hoped that such reverberations would bring indigenous changes in the Iranian politics.

The reformist Iranian regime brought females in its cabinet; local government elections in Tehran brought female deputies into the centre of political power in Iran. It was again hoped that a tide of change has started, engulfing the state restriction on hijab. However, the hopes were soured when state cracked down during the recent protests. A girl, symbol of dissent, was arrested and then released upon global condemnation, for publically taking off the hijab. The state of Iran again reverted to restrictions on female body and appearance instead of taking the protests to be signs of demands for impending change.

At a time when women even in the private are protesting against the discrimination based upon gender in the private through the ‘me too’ movement; when the Saudi Arabia is disregarding the historical influence of Wahabi influences on hijab, it is high time that the Iranian regime reconsiders its politics and allows indigenous liberating voices of females to change the state enforced practice of veil.