‘Revealing’ wedding dress of daughter of Iranian supreme leader’s aide who organised crackdown on hijab protestors sparks backlash in Tehran
An advisor to Iran’s Ayatollah who helped organise a crackdown on anti-hijab protestors has sparked outcry in Iran after letting his daughter marry in a ‘revealing’ dress.
Footage circulating on social media shows Ali Shamkhani, a top advisor to Iran’s supreme leader and a member of the Expediency Council, escorting his daughter, Fatemeh, into a wedding hall at Tehran’s luxury Espinas Palace Hotel.
The bride wore a strapless white dress with a low neckline and entered the grand room to cheers and music.
The Western-style wedding sparked anger on Iranian social media, with many accusing Shamkhani of hypocrisy, considering the mandatory hijab and modesty laws that have restricted women’s dress for decades.
Shamkhani, a long-time ally of Ali Khamenei, previously served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the body responsible for the regime’s national security, between 2013 and 2023.
He was in the position when the government organised a brutal crackdown on the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, who died in police custody in 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf.
The footage of his daughter’s wedding, purportedly leaked on X on October 17, comes amid reports that the country plans to introduce 80,000 new morality police officers in Tehran to enforce women’s compliance with Islamic dress codes, according to independent TV network Iran International.
People online were quick to point out the bride’s ‘revealing’ attire and her mother’s low neckline, as well as the lavish nature of the ceremony amid young people’s inability to afford marriage.
Roughly half of Iran’s population of 92 million were under the poverty line in 2022, according to reports by Iran’s Statistics Centre.
‘The morality police, unemployment, and poverty belong to the Iranian people, while the lavish ceremony funded by the nation’s money belongs to the Islamic Republic,’ one person wrote on X.
The wedding dress of one of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s senior advisors has sparked fury in Iran with people accusing the Islamic Republic official of double standards
Footage circulating on social media shows Ali Shamkhani, a top advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, escorting his daughter, Fatemeh, into a wedding hall at Tehran’s luxury Espinas Palace Hotel
The bride wore a strapless white dress with a low neckline and entered the grand room to cheers and music
Exiled Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad wrote: ‘The daughter of Ali Shamkhani, one of the Islamic Republic’s top enforcers, had a lavish wedding in a strapless dress.
‘Meanwhile, women in Iran are beaten for showing their hair and young people can’t afford to marry. This video made millions of Iranian furious. Because they enforce “Islamic values” with bullets, batons and prisons on everyone but themselves.
‘This isn’t hypocrisy, it’s the system. They preach “modesty” while their own daughters parade in designer dresses. The message couldn’t be clearer: the rules are for you, not for them.’
Alireza Akhondi, a Swedish MP of Iranian descent who has been a vocal critic of the regime, wrote: ‘The daughter of one of the most corrupt and repressive officials of the Islamic Republic is getting married in a lavish celebration, dressed freely.
‘She is free because her father has power. This is no longer religion. This is a display of hypocrisy, corruption, and fear. Fear of women who think and choose freely.’
The death of Amini in 2022 after she fell into a coma in police custody sparked a furious nationwide protest movement in Iran led by women and girls.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 500 people, including 68 children, were killed by security forces during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that swept the country, while 20,000 were arrested.
In his position as secretary of the SNSC, Shamkhani would have been part of the crackdown on demonstrators and an enforcer of the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab and public-morality policies – the same rules that saw Amini arrested and die after witnesses said she was beaten up by police.
A UN fact-finding mission (FFM) reported that throughout the demonstrations, the Iranian government ‘committed a series of extensive, sustained and continuing acts that individually constitute human rights violations directed against women, girls and persons expressing support for gender equality’.
The SNSC is Iran’s highest security body, bringing together the Interior Minister, Intelligence Minister, Revolutionary Guards commanders and judiciary chiefs, all under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The wedding of Shamkhani’s daughter was reportedly held in April 2024 and attended by members of Iran’s political elite.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in police custody in 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf
Video captured the moment an undercover morality officer (right) confronted a woman who was not wearing a headscarf (left) on a public bus in Iran
A video from 2021 shows an undercover member of Iran’s morality police try to haul a woman off a bus for failing to wear a headscarf.
The footage captured on a public bus in Iran shows a young woman with her hair loose being targeted by an older woman in a full headscarf and abaya robe.
The older woman tries to force the other off the bus, saying that she needs to be handed over to police for violating the country’s strict dress code.
But other women intervene, telling her to ‘get lost’ and ‘give up’ before forcing her out on to the street.
Shamkhani, 70, is a former defence minister and senior military commander who has served under Khamenei since the early years of the Islamic Republic.
He narrowly survived an Israeli air strike on his Tehran apartment in June after initial reports that he died during the IDF’s military operation.
