February 4, 2026
Bad Hair Day for a Regime
Women rejecting the hijab have doomed Iran's brutal regime
Brave defiance or false dawn? Commenters clash over Iran’s ‘hair revolt’
TLDR: The piece claims women defying compulsory hijab has crippled Iran’s control, sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death. Commenters split: some see a turning point and call out media hedging, while others insist the regime isn’t going anywhere—cue dark jokes about mini-skirts and broken archive links.
The article is a battle cry: Iranian women ditching the hijab is framed as the regime’s fatal crack, with the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini turning “Woman, Life, Freedom” from slogan to street reality. The author says the state can’t enforce dress codes at scale anymore, and even calls out Western media—especially the BBC—for tiptoeing around Tehran’s spin about “outside actors.” It’s big, bold, and furious.
But the comments are a tug-of-war. The top hot take? Outrage that “optional hijab” claims were a lie—“women who don’t wear it get shot,” fumes one voice. Skeptics clap back: the regime isn’t done, not by a long shot. One warns that “rumors of the theocracy’s death” are a meme, not a forecast, and another says on-the-ground reports show the “islamists” aren’t going anywhere. Meanwhile, the jokers arrive with a spicy time-travel quip—“mini-skirts… could it go back? Asking for a friend”—and a classic tech-forum meltdown: “archive link not working!” Even “Ayatollah BBC” trends in the thread, with users side-eyeing “neutrality.” It’s a comment-section cage match—hope vs. hard realism—with the stakes deadly serious and the humor dark, but the energy unmistakable: women led this, and the internet notices. For context: Woman, Life, Freedom.
Key Points
- •The article describes Iran’s fluctuating enforcement of women’s dress rules as a mechanism to test and assert state control.
- •It recounts a 2007 morality-police arrest in Tehran as an example of hijab enforcement.
- •Mahsa Amini’s 2022 death after arrest for alleged hijab violations is presented as a catalyst for the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
- •The article reports allegations of torture during the crackdown and cites IRGC threats against a trauma surgeon who fled Iran.
- •It criticizes media, particularly the BBC, for amplifying regime claims about foreign orchestration and for cautious or slow coverage.