Countries Where Hijab Is Mandatory: Iran, Afghanistan, and Aceh

Only two countries currently require women to cover their hair or bodies by national law: Iran and Afghanistan. Indonesia’s Aceh province adds a third jurisdiction where hijab is mandatory, but only for Muslim women and only within that province. So the short list of countries where hijab is mandatory is small, and several nations widely assumed to belong on it, including Saudi Arabia, no longer do. Penalties for violating these laws range from modest fines to prison sentences that can reach 15 years under Iran’s newest legislation.

Iran

Iran has required women to wear a hijab in public since the years after the 1979 revolution. For decades, the main statute was Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code, which set penalties of 10 days to two months in prison, a fine, or both for women who appeared in public without “religious hijab.”¹ Official guidance defines proper hijab as full hair coverage using a chador, a hood-like maghnaeh, or a headscarf, paired with a loose coat reaching at least to the knees.²

In late 2024, Iran’s parliament passed a much harsher replacement: the Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab. Fines for a first offense start around $160 and climb to roughly $4,000 by a fourth violation. Repeat offenders face up to five years in prison and a two-year travel ban. For the most serious category of violations, prison terms reach 10 to 15 years, and the law allows judges to apply the death penalty under the existing “corruption on earth” provision. Anyone who “insults or ridicules the hijab” or promotes unveiling faces up to five years in prison, and flogging remains available for conduct that “offends public decency.”³⁴

The 2024 law also shifts enforcement onto private citizens and businesses. Individuals, families, and business owners are required to report unveiling, and businesses that serve unveiled women or “promote improper clothing” face fines, license revocations, and travel bans. Between June and October 2025, at least 50 cafes, restaurants, wedding halls, and boutiques were shut down for serving unveiled women. Women who cannot pay their fines lose the ability to register vehicles, renew a driver’s license, or leave the country.³

Enforcement runs through Iran’s morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, along with a government-backed reporting app called Nazer, aerial drones in Tehran and southern Iran, and facial recognition installed at university entrances. UN experts have noted that much of this enforcement “does not rely on laws or legal process” and operates through a mix of state agencies, security forces, and private actors. Women detained for hijab violations have been forced to sign written pledges promising not to repeat the offense.⁵

The hijab requirement becomes legally binding at age nine, the minimum age of criminal responsibility for girls. In practice, authorities impose compulsory veiling starting at age seven, when girls enter elementary school. The 2024 law formally sets its scope at age 12 and above.³

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s mandatory covering rule took shape after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. A May 2022 decree from the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice requires all women to cover their bodies and faces entirely in public. The decree identifies the blue chadori, an all-encompassing burqa, as the “best form of hijab.” Women who do not wear the chadori must wear a long black garment and headscarf leaving nothing visible except the eyes. The decree also states that women without important business outside the home should stay inside.⁶

In August 2024, the de facto authorities codified these requirements in the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law. It orders women to cover their bodies and faces entirely and prohibits them from speaking or singing loudly enough for non-family members to hear. Enforcers may impose punishments ranging from verbal warnings to fines to imprisonment, provided the penalty is not one reserved exclusively for a court.⁷

Afghanistan’s enforcement model is unusual: penalties fall primarily on a woman’s male guardian. If a woman is found violating the dress code, enforcers first visit her male guardian at home to deliver a warning. A second violation summons the guardian to a district office of the Ministry. A third violation leads to a formal court referral, which can result in the guardian’s detention or imprisonment. UNAMA has documented cases where women were arrested as a first response instead, and international observers describe an “apparent lack of accountability” for ministry staff who bypass the graduated process.⁶⁷

Afghanistan’s rules are the strictest of any mandatory covering law in force. They demand full face and body concealment rather than hair and neck coverage, and they apply to all Afghan women regardless of ethnicity or sect.

Aceh, Indonesia

Indonesia has no national hijab law. The province of Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, holds a special autonomy arrangement that lets it enforce religious law through local regulations called Qanun. Qanun Number 11 of 2002 requires Muslim women in the province to wear Islamic clothing in public,⁸ and a 2014 Islamic criminal code (Qanun Jinayah) strengthened enforcement.

Two features set Aceh apart from Iran and Afghanistan. The law applies only to Muslims; non-Muslim residents and tourists have no legal obligation to cover their heads, though social pressure to do so is considerable. And the requirement stops at the provincial border. A woman subject to the dress code in Aceh faces no such obligation in Jakarta or Bali. Enforcement inside the province is carried out by a dedicated religious police force.

Chechnya: A De Facto Rule Without Written Law

Chechnya, a republic within the Russian Federation, has maintained a de facto headscarf rule since at least 2006. Female students must wear headscarves in schools and universities, and women in the public sector can be denied employment for refusing to cover. This policy has no basis in Russian federal law or Chechen written law. It operates as an extra-legal directive backed by the republic’s political leadership, and enforcement expanded through 2009 and 2010 to include cinemas, entertainment venues, and outdoor spaces. The Russian constitution formally guarantees freedom of personal appearance.

Countries Often Assumed to Require Hijab

Saudi Arabia is the country most often assumed to require the hijab, and it no longer does. Beginning in 2019, Saudi Arabia replaced its older expectations with a public decency law requiring “modest dress” for both men and women, specifying only loose clothing that covers elbows and ankles. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated publicly in 2018 that clothing choice is “entirely left for women” beyond general modesty norms. There is no legal obligation to wear a headscarf or abaya in most public spaces, though one is still expected when entering mosques or religious sites.

Iraq, Pakistan, and parts of Malaysia carry strong cultural expectations around head covering but no legal mandate. Women who choose not to veil may face family or community consequences, but none of these countries impose criminal penalties for appearing in public without a hijab.

How These Laws Apply to Visitors

In both Iran and Afghanistan, the covering requirement applies to every woman within the country’s borders regardless of citizenship, religion, or national origin. Foreign tourists, business travelers, and diplomatic staff are all expected to comply. Non-Muslim residents receive no exemption.

The U.S. State Department’s most recent advisory on Iran, updated in December 2025, focuses on the “Do Not Travel” designation because of detention risks and lack of consular access, and does not provide specific dress code guidance. The United States has no embassy or consular services in Iran, so American citizens who encounter legal trouble over dress code violations have no direct U.S. government representation available.⁹ Under Iran’s 2024 law, a foreign national found in violation could face passport confiscation in addition to the standard penalties.

Aceh is the exception. Its hijab law reaches only Muslim women, so non-Muslim tourists visiting the province are not legally obligated to cover their hair, though dressing conservatively remains a practical expectation.

1
Cornell Law Institute. The Islamic Penal Code of Iran, Book 5
2
ecoi.net. Iran: Dress Codes, Including Legislation, Enforcement and Criminal Penalties
3
OHCHR. Iran: UN Experts Call for Hijab and Chastity Law to Be Repealed
4
OHCHR. Iran: Crackdown on Hijab Law
5
OHCHR. Repressive Enforcement of Iranian Hijab Laws Symbolises Gender-Based Persecution: UN Experts
6
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. De Facto Authorities’ Moral Oversight in Afghanistan: Impacts on Human Rights
7
European Union Agency for Asylum. Actors of Enforcement
8
Media Center DPRA. Qanun Provinsi Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Nomor 11 Tahun 2002
9
U.S. Department of State. Iran Travel Advisory