ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian Vice President Javad Zarif has faced criticism at home after he told an American journalist in Switzerland that enforcing a new hijab law was not part of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s agenda.
“Anti-coup forces must arrest and interrogate Zarif upon his entry into the country, otherwise the country will soon face more complex and very dangerous crises,” Secretary General of the Islamic Revolution Front in Cyberspace Rouhollah Momen Nasab said on Thursday on an Iranian social media platform.
Javad Zarif, Iran's vice president for strategic affairs, sparked controversy with his remarks about enforcement of the hijab law during his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Now, if you go to the streets of Tehran, you see that there are women who are not covering their hair. It's against the law, but the government has decided not to put women under pressure. And this was a promise that President Pezeshkian made, and the promise is being observed. He did not implement a law,” Zarif said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
Offices of the paramilitary Basij forces at Sharif and Tabatabai universities issued statements criticizing Zarif and questioning his authority to represent Iran after the comments, Tasnim News Agency reported.
At the end of last year, Iran’s parliament passed a new law introducing stricter punishments for women who fail to cover their hair. The law has received international criticism for severely restricting women’s liberties.
This is not the first time Zarif has stirred up controversy.
In December, the parliament’s security committee published a letter calling for his resignation because he has family members with United States citizenship.
A law passed in 2022 prohibits dual citizenship for spouses of those who hold sensitive governmental positions.
“If the court decides that I should go, I'll go. I mean, it won't be the end of the world. I'll start teaching again,” Zarif said in response to the complaint.
He tried to resign from Pezeshkian’s cabinet in August, saying at the time that he was “not satisfied with the outcome of our work and ashamed that I could not adequately implement the expert opinions of the committees.”
He returned to his post later that month.
Zarif previously served as foreign minister in reformist president Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet and took part in negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers. A seasoned diplomat, he helped open Iran up to the West.
