Iranian Official's Daughter's Strapless Wedding Dress Sparks Hypocrisy Claims Against Regime's Hijab Laws

Shamkhani has accused Israel of leaking a video from the April 2024 function.

Iran's hardline Islamic regime, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, finds itself in an unusual scandal rarely witnessed in the Islamic Republic. The controversy centers around the wedding celebration of the daughter of one of Khamenei's close advisors, where the bride was photographed in a strapless wedding gown, prompting accusations of hypocrisy regarding the regime's strict hijab enforcement policies.

The video that sparked outrage features the 2024 wedding of Ali Shamkhani's daughter. Shamkhani holds one of Iran's most senior positions in defense and national security and is a trusted associate of Khamenei. He has been a vocal proponent of strict Islamic regulations for women and has authorized violent suppressions of demonstrations.

In 2022, while Shamkhani headed Iran's National Security Council, the country experienced widespread protests with women publicly removing and burning their headscarves in defiance of the country's mandatory hijab laws.

In the recently circulated footage, Admiral Shamkhani, who serves on Iran's Expediency Council, is seen escorting his daughter Fatemeh down the aisle at the luxurious Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran. The bride appears in a revealing strapless gown with a translucent veil barely covering her head.

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…

Shamkhani's wife appears in the video wearing an equally revealing blue lace evening dress with exposed back and sides, without a headscarf. Several female guests at the event were also observed not adhering to hijab requirements.

The lavishness of the Western-style celebration and the clothing choices of the bride and her mother—both highly unusual in a country where hijab is mandatory and modesty laws have been strictly enforced for decades—have attracted significant attention, with critics highlighting the apparent double standards of the Khamenei administration.

Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian activist, commented on X: "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."

She emphasized that the video infuriated millions of Iranians because the Khamenei regime enforces "Islamic values with bullets, batons and prisons on everyone but themselves."

"The main advisor of Khamenei was celebrating his daughter's wedding at a palace-like venue. The same regime that killed Mahsa Amini for showing a bit of her hair, jails women for singing, who hired 80,000 'morality police' to drag girls into vans, throws itself a luxury party. 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," she added.

Iranian journalist Amir Hossein Mosalla remarked on social media that the video demonstrated "the regime officials themselves have no belief in their own laws that they support, they only want to make people's lives miserable."

On Monday, Shargh, a reformist-leaning Iranian newspaper, featured a front-page image of Shamkhani with the headline: "Buried Under Scandal".

Omid Memarian, an Iran expert at DAWN, a Washington-based research organization focusing on American foreign policy in the Middle East, told The New York Times, "It's hypocrisy in its purest form."

Ellie Omidvari, an Iranian women's rights activist, reflected on the hundreds killed during protests, some of them newlyweds. "Their bride is in a palace, our bride is buried under the ground," she stated.

Even Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, criticized Shamkhani. "There is no doubt that the lifestyle of officials in the Islamic Republic must be defensible," it stated, while also condemning the publication of a private video as unethical.

In response to the controversy, Shamkhani has claimed Israel is responsible for leaking the video from the April 2024 event. "Hacking into people's privacy is Israel's new method of assassination," he was quoted as saying by Iran International.

According to the publication, former Iranian minister Ezzatollah Zarghami has come to Shamkhani's defense, stating that he maintained a low profile and that the ceremony was 'female-only.'

"Some women were veiled, and the rest were close relatives," Zarghami said.