Graves Depicting 98 'Loose-Veiled' Women Painted Over in Tehran Cemetery

A recent crackdown on so-called “bad hijab” in Iran appears to have extended to municipal graves. On Monday Saeed Ghazanfari, the CEO of Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, the largest burial site in Tehran, announced that 98 headstones bearing the images of unveiled or partially-veiled women had been altered.

The operation, he said, had taken place over the past few months “in coordination” with the families of the deceased.

Justifying the move, he told the IRGC-owned Fars News Agency: “Our position regarding unveiled images was clear from day one and we had announced this explicitly, although hostile and opposition media insulted and ridiculed us.”

Ghazanfari further claimed that other citizens and mourners had complained about the “un-Islamic” headstones. He warned engravers that if they continued to accept commissions that flouted the rules, Behesht-e Zahra would sever commercial ties with them.