Iran International
Censors forced Iran’s moderate newspaper Ham-Mihan offline on Tuesday after hardliners condemned its use of a photo of a veiled woman on its front page for a report about a controversial rape case.
Centering around the Islamic veil which conservatives view as a sacrosanct symbol of Iran's Islamic identity which they are empowered to force on society, the dispute exposes deepening cultural and political rifts inside the country.
The image, which was intended to represent the alleged victim symbolically, drew ire from conservative elements who accused the newspaper of allegedly insulting Islamic values and undermining the hijab.
State TV presenter Mohammad-Reza Shahbazi harshly criticized the choice, saying, “Virtuous and veiled women are pure from the filth you wallow in day and night, which sometimes reeks like this (rape case). Put up a picture of one of your own kind instead.”
Editor-in-chief Mohammad-Javad Rouh said the alleged victim did not wish to reveal her identity and that using an unveiled photo as a symbolic image was not possible under the Islamic Republic’s media restrictions.
Rouh rejected claims that the paper had targeted the hijab.
“We did not speak against the hijab, nor did we intend to create controversy,” Rouh said. He added that the newspaper had fulfilled its journalistic duty by interviewing both the complainant and the accused’s lawyer in what he called “a balanced, professional report.”
The hardline website Mashregh News claimed, citing an informed source, that Iran’s Press Supervisory Board had already issued three formal warnings to Ham-Mihan in recent months.
It alleged that one of the paper’s violations was serious enough to be referred to court and that “a judicial verdict is imminent," without elaborating.
Mashregh further accused the paper of intentionally publishing the rape case article by journalist Elaheh Mohammadi — who was imprisoned in 2022 for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini — shortly before a potential suspension.
“The behavior of Ham-Mihan’s managers in assigning a project to a journalist with a history of arrest for security issues, whose past reporting triggered one of the country’s deepest crises, is now under review,” the outlet wrote.
Hardliners on the offensive
State-aligned outlets quickly turned the incident into a political storm. The official Mehr news agency said Ham-Mihan had been taken down for “violating professional ethics.” Tasnim, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, accused the paper of “a deliberate insult to the traditions of a large portion of Iranian women.”
Online, conservative commentators called the newspaper’s decision immoral.
Filmmaker Mikail Diani claimed it showed “malice and an effort to create social division,” while Fatemeh Raygani, a philosophy researcher, wrote on X that the report had “polluted the symbol of the black chador with a story of (alleged) sexual assault.”
Not the first time
The closure of Ham-Mihan underscores the precarious position of moderate media in Iran, where professional reporting on sensitive social issues can quickly provoke accusations of immorality or political subversion, leaving editors and reporters under intense scrutiny from authorities and the public alike.
Ham-Mihan, run by Gholamhossein Karbaschi — a senior member of the centrist Executives of Construction Party and a former Tehran mayor — was relaunched in July 2022 after previous suspensions.
It has faced closure twice before, in 1999 and 2008. Since its relaunch in 2022, it has drawn scrutiny for its coverage of gender and social issues.
Karbaschi told Eco Iran a few days ago that several of his reporters were summoned and threatened by Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents after publishing a piece on challenges facing female heads of households.
“What threat can a newspaper with a circulation of one or two thousand pose to the state?” he asked.
The dispute comes amid intensifying pressure on Iran’s press. According to the Defense of Free Information organization (DeFFI), at least 95 journalists and outlets faced legal or security action in the first half of 2025, with six reporters temporarily detained and collective prison sentences exceeding 22 years.
Some observers believe the main reason for the action taken against Ham-Mihan was reporting the alleged rape case itself.
Veteran reformist columnist Ahmad Zeidabadi wrote: “In a country where you can’t even report on a private criminal case, what need is there for newspapers at all? State TV and Kayhan (which is funded by the Supreme Leader’s office) are enough.”
