The administrative building of prominent Iranian online retailer Digikala was closed by law enforcement officers on July 23 after images showing Digikala's female employees without their mandatory hijabs circulated on social media, another sign of the government's tighter regulation of the compulsory head-scarf law.
The images were shared by a group of pro-government social media users, who subsequently called on government agencies to take action against the company and its female employees. The judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency reported afterward that a legal case has been initiated against Digikala's female employees.
In a simultaneous development, the renowned Tehran cafe France Pastry announced its closure, adding that it will announce its reopening when possible. It gave no details for the closure, but reports speculated it was also shut due to hijab violations.
Despite the sealing of Digikala's main administrative building, the company's public relations department announced that its online store remains operational, with all departments continuing to provide services and fulfil their commitments to customers and sellers.
In recent days, law enforcement forces of the Islamic republic have shut dozens of cafes and restaurants in Tehran, Mashhad, and other Iranian cities due to "noncompliance with Islamic norms."
The closing of commercial and trade places has been extended beyond large cities and metropolises to include smaller towns. Mohammad Rostami, the law enforcement commander of the northern Iranian county of Talesh, said 24 business units there have been shut as part of "preventive actions to confront social abnormalities."
Anger over the suppression of human rights, and women's rights in particular, has boiled over since last September when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in police custody. She was being held for an alleged violation of the hijab law, which makes it compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 to cover their heads when out in public.
While the protests appear to have waned slightly in recent months, resistance to the hijab remains strong as it is seen now as a symbol of the state's repression of women and the deadly crackdown on society.
The wave of government intervention against those violating the law has been met with stiff resistance from women.
The campaign against the compulsory hijab has grown so widespread that Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, conceded in June that while women defying the hijab law should technically be arrested, the large numbers of women involved made such mass detentions unfeasible.
In recent weeks, authorities have broadened their crackdown on the issue, shutting down businesses, restaurants, cafes, and in some cases pharmacies due to the failure of owners or managers to enforce Islamic laws and hijab rules.
In the face of the unrest, some religious and government figures have repeatedly advocated a tougher stance by the government against offenders.