In recent months, conservative voices in the parliament and judiciary have grown louder, complaining that the authorities’ laxity has eroded public morality and undermined the Islamic identity of the state. Reports indicate that a majority of lawmakers recently accused the judiciary of failing to uphold hijab laws — and the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, called for stricter enforcement.
Paradoxically, the government under moderate president Masoud Pezeshkian has refused to ratify a bill passed by parliament that would impose harsher penalties on women who flout the dress code.
Thus, the marathon on Kish Island came to embody this tug-of-war: a private, ostensibly apolitical event that collided with Iran’s fraught struggle over gender, social norms, identity and authority.
The backlash from conservative media and hard-line activists was immediate and emphatic. Tasnim and Fars decried the marathon as “indecent,” accusing the organisers of facilitating “public unveiling and debauchery.”
Some critics went beyond condemnation: one hard-line activist described the race as a “disco marathon,” jeering that the event turned Kish into “The Las Vegas Republic.”
