Are Iranians celebrating the end of the legal obligation to wear the hijab by burning them in the streets—what’s the truth?

This video shows the protests in Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death in detention for breaking hijab restrictions in September 2022.

A video is going viral on social media claiming that Iran has abolished the mandatory hijab and that women are burning hijabs in the street to celebrate. The video shows women gathering in the street at night and throwing their headscarves into a burning fire. 

The caption of the post states, “Iran has ended the legal obligation of the hijab. Now, whether to wear the hijab or not will depend on the will of the women there, no legal compulsion. The people of Iran are coming out on the streets and collectively burning hijabs to celebrate”.

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search along with a relevant keyword search on Google. The results led us to a video report of Sky News uploaded on 21 September, 2022. The caption states, “Iranian women burn hijabs and cut hair in protest.” Women burned headscarves and cut their hair amid protests across the country sparked by the death of a young woman in custody. The report states, on 13 September, 2022, Mahsa Amini, 22, was taken into custody by the nation’s morality police on suspicion of violating the stringent dress codes. She passed away in a hospital three days later after collapsing at a detention facility. Following the death of a young lady in detention, women nationwide staged protests, burning headscarves and cutting their hair in response.

This indicates that that the viral video is from September 2022 and does not show any recent event. Keeping this in mind, we ran another keyword search that led us to multiple news reports about this incident. The Voice of America uploaded the similar visuals on their YouTube channel on 22 September 2022. The description part states, “A woman throws her hijab into a fire on a street in Sari, Iran. Protests have swelled over the death of a young woman arrested by morality police tasked with enforcing a strict dress code for women”.

On September 16, Ms. Amini – also known by her Kurdish name, Jina Amini – died after being detained by so-called ‘morality police’ for allegedly not following the country’s dress code while visiting the capital city. In the days since her death, demonstrations have erupted globally and numerous protesters have been killed in Iran, according to human rights groups.

As of October 2025, there is no credible reports or official announcement that Iran has lifted the legal obligation to wear the hijab. 

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. The footage of women burning headscarves is from protests that occurred in September 2022. The demonstrations were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, who had arrested her for breaking hijab restrictions.