Iran International
Iran’s political establishment is once again flirting changing laws to allow women to ride motorcycles even as women and girls have already spent years doing it without waiting for an official green light.
A senior official rekindled the debate on Monday when he said parliament should “decide” whether the law needs clarification on women’s licensing.
“If religious standards are observed, motorcycling does not contradict most sharia rulings,” said Abdolhossein Khosropanah, secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.
Several news outlets quickly framed the remark as permission for women to ride, while conservative lawmakers bristled at the ball being tossed into their court, insisting that no such issue was on parliament’s agenda.
Khosropanah also warned that some women already ride “without proper hijab,” effectively acknowledging that the genie is out of the bottle.
Reality on the streets
The supposed “green light” may not herald imminent policy change—and few seem to be waiting for it anyway.
Women on scooters and motorcycles have become increasingly common. Many now zip through traffic on lipstick-red, lilac, and canary-yellow bikes, taking children to school or commuting to work. Groups of young women even ride together in social clubs, sharing videos that draw thousands of likes.
Only a generation ago, even car driving was restricted in some areas, with families forbidding it despite valid licenses.
Women have also competed internationally since 2016, when MAFIRI opened motocross events to women despite the lack of a dedicated track. Earlier this year, the Women’s International Motorcycle Association launched an Iran chapter.
One rider told the moderate daily Etemad that her husband “stood up to relatives” who disapproved. “Sharing my rides on social media brought more clients,” she said. Another scooter rider said public reactions are largely positive: “People cheer us on, but some traffic police still treat us badly.”
The Sharia barrier
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled that women’s cycling “in public view of men is haram because it attracts attention.”
While he did not mention motorcycles, many clerics apply the same logic, arguing that riding prevents wearing the hijab properly and exposes body movements.
Proponents counter that Islamic law never banned women from horse-riding and that women have long been allowed to ride as passengers on motorcycles without police interference.
Iranian law does not explicitly ban women from riding motorcycles, but no licensing system exists for them because the traffic code refers only to “men”—a gap police interpret as exclusion.
Without licenses, women cannot obtain insurance and may be liable for full blood money in accidents. Penalties for riding without a license include fines, bike confiscation, and up to two months in jail, rising to six months for repeat offenders.
Public pushback
A landmark 2019 lawsuit briefly forced police to issue a license before being overturned on appeal, but it galvanized public debate and encouraged more women to ride openly.
The Presidential Parliamentary Office recently said it is drafting a bill to modify Article 20 of the Law on Driving Offenses to allow women to obtain motorcycle licenses.
Legal scholar Mohsen Borhani wrote on X: “Opponents of women motorcyclists have no rational, moral, or religious basis. This discrimination is as absurd as Saudi Arabia’s old ban on female drivers.”
Commentator Sahand Iranmehr added: “Clinging to outdated rules only raises the cost. A law that resists social reality becomes obsolete and loses legitimacy.”
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.