Iranian women defy hardline push to enforce hijab amid economic crisis

In Iran, the ancient contest between authority and conscience has taken a new form: women moving through city streets without headscarves, filming themselves, and broadcasting their defiance to thousands, even as courts sentence a singer to lashes for appearing bareheaded on a livestream. The regime, stretched thin by war and economic collapse, enforces its dress codes unevenly — closing cafes one week, hesitating to sweep the streets the next — while its own president quietly wonders aloud whether laws can truly change what people believe. This is not merely a dispute over cloth; it is a reck