ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Zhina Amini’s father, Amjad, whose daughter’s death in Iran’s police custody over her lax hijab sparked one of the largest nationwide protests in the country, criticized the Iranian government on Friday for broadcasting women with loose hijabs during pro-government rallies.

“They killed my innocent daughter because of four strands of hair, and no one was held accountable. Yet when they film girls with uncovered heads and what they call ‘unconventional’ clothing at official ceremonies and broadcast it, no one cries out, ‘Oh Islam!’ This is a strange time we live in,” Amini wrote on his social media account on Friday. 

Her father's comments come after the Islamic Republic, notorious for its draconian modesty laws, has increasingly shown footage of women flouting hijab regulations in public at pro-government events.

Bushra Shaikh, a British pro-Islamic Republic commentator who claims to have no official ties with the Iranian government despite myriad allegations to the contrary, on Thursday shared a video of her attending a rally in Tehran without donning the garment.

“Yes, I walked the entire rally in Tehran without a hijab and guess what happened? Absolutely nothing. There is evidently more of a relaxed tone around hijab - I experienced it for myself,” she wrote on X.

Zhina Amini, a young Kurdish woman from Saqqez, meanwhile, was arrested in 2022 for allegedly not covering her hair sufficiently with her hijab, dying in police custody hours later.

Her death sparked Iran’s largest protest movement in Iran in more than four decades. Iranian authorities heavily cracked down on the demonstrations, with over 500 people killed and tens of thousands of others arrested during the nationwide movement.

Since the ensuing outrage, adherence to the rigid modesty laws has become increasingly sporadic.

Amini’s family has repeatedly faced state pressure for speaking out about detainees and alleged human rights violations, and in several cases, they have been summoned to court.

Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests since late last year, which have spread to the majority of provinces and increasingly become anti-government in nature, prompting a violent crackdown from Iranian authorities.

No reliable data is available on the exact number of casualties, but rights monitors estimate it to be in the thousands. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that security forces have killed more than 6,955 protesters, injured over 11,000, and arrested more than 51,000. 

The recent pro-government rallies in Iran following the January crackdown were widely considered to be state-organized events during periods of unrest.

State-affiliated media attempted to portray broad societal support by broadcasting interviews with participants from all segments of society, including women wearing loose hijabs, on state television.

The move has been criticized by many and seen as an attempt by Tehran to project an image of inclusivity among its supporters.

The Iranian outlets also have long faced allegations of manipulating such videos to increase the apparent turnout at pro-government rallies, with an IRIB aerial shot of a pro-government gathering in Tehran aired following the January protests being widely believed to have been doctored.