An adviser to the Ayatollah of Iran, who helped organize the crackdown on protests against the compulsory headscarf, caused outrage in the country, since he allowed his daughter to get married wearing a revealing dress.

Video circulating on social media shows Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader and a member of the Interests Council, accompanying his daughter, Fatemeh, in the banquet hall of the luxurious Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran.

The bride wore a white strapless gown with a low neckline and entered the grand hall to cheers and music. A dress that would go unnoticed in Western societies, but not in Iran.

The Western-style wedding sparked outrage on Iranian social media, with many accusing Shamkhani of hypocrisy given the strict headscarf laws he supports.

Shamkhani, a longtime ally of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, previously served as its secretary of the Supreme National Security Councilof the body responsible for the regime’s national security, from 2013 to 2023.

She held the position when the government orchestrated a harsh crackdown on protests that followed the death of Mahsha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating the mandatory headscarf law.

The video of his daughter’s wedding, reportedly leaked on X platform on October 17, comes as reports of the country’s plan to deploy 80,000 young morality police in Tehran to enforce women’s compliance with Islamic dress codes, according to independent TV network Iran International.

Netizens were quick to point out the bride’s dress and her mother’s low neckline, as well as the lavish nature of the ceremony, at a time when young people are struggling to afford marriage.

According to Iran’s National Statistics Agency, about half of the population of 92 million lived below the poverty line in 2022.

“The moral police, unemployment and poverty belong to the Iranian people, while the lavish ceremony financed with the nation’s money belongs to the Islamic Republic“, wrote a user on X.

Exiled Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinezad wrote: “The daughter of Ali Shamhani, one of the regime’s top enforcers, had a lavish wedding wearing a strapless dress. Meanwhile, women in Iran are beaten for showing their hair and young men cannot marry. This video angered millions of Iranians. They impose “Islamic values” with bullets, clubs and prisons on everyone but themselves.

That’s not hypocrisy, that’s the system. They preach modesty, while their own daughters parade around in designer dresses. The message is clear: the rules apply to you, not them.”

Alireza Ahodi, a Swedish MP of Iranian descent and a staunch critic of the regime, wrote:

“The daughter of one of the Islamic Republic’s most corrupt and oppressive officials is getting married in a lavish ceremony, dressed freely.

She is free because her father has power. This is no longer a religion, it is a display of hypocrisy, corruption and fear, fear of women who think and choose freely.”

Amini’s death in 2022, after falling into a coma in police custody, sparked a massive wave of protests across Iranwith women and young girls leading the way.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 500 people, including 68 children, were killed by security forces during the movement. “Woman, Life, Freedom”while 20,000 people were arrested.

As secretary of the SNSC, Shamkhani was among those who coordinated the crackdown on protests and the enforcement of strict headscarf and “public morality” rules, the same rules that led to the arrest and death of Amini, who eyewitnesses said was beaten by police.

The UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) reported that throughout the protests, the Iranian government “committed a series of widespread, systematic and ongoing actions that constitute human rights violations against women, girls and those who express support for gender equality».

The SNSC is Iran’s top security body, comprising the Interior Minister, the Intelligence Minister, the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the heads of the judiciary, under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shamkhani’s daughter’s wedding reportedly took place in April 2024, with members of Iran’s political elite in attendance. Video from 2021 shows a member of the morality police trying to drag a woman off a bus because she wasn’t wearing a headscarf. The video, taken on a public bus in Iran, shows a young woman with loose hair being targeted by an elderly woman wearing a full headscarf and abaya. The elderly woman tries to get her off the bus, saying she should hand herself in to the police for violating the dress code. But other women intervene, telling her to “go away” and “give it up”, before forcing her down the street.

Shamkhani, 70, is a former defense minister and top military commander who has served under Khamenei since the early years of the Islamic Republic.

He narrowly survived an Israeli airstrike on his apartment in Tehran in June, after initial reports that he had been killed during an IDF military operation.