ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s parliament speaker and lawmakers on Sunday criticized Vice President Javad Zarif over remarks he made in Davos regarding the country’s hijab law, stating that elected officials must not “jeopardize national interests.”
“People who are considered agents of the system in some way must be careful in their statements so that the message conveyed to the enemy does not jeopardize national interests. Raising internal issues and disputes in international environments is considered to weaken the integrity of the Iranian nation,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said, as cited by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Zarif, Iran's vice president for strategic affairs, sparked controversy with his remarks about the enforcement of the hijab law at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government does not enforce the hijab mandate and many women do not adhere to the law.
Hamid Rasaee, a conservative Tehran MP, slammed Zarif as being in an “illegal position” and stressed he is not suited to represent Iran abroad.
“The government has not only kept a person in an illegal position but has also sent him on foreign trips. During these trips, strange positions have been taken that were not transparent to the parliament,” Tasnim cited Rasaee as saying.
Rasaee also highlighted Zarif's meeting with six think tanks in Davos, noting that the content of the discussions and the identities of the attendees remain unclear.
At the end of last year, Iran’s parliament passed a new law introducing stricter punishments for women who fail to cover their hair. The law has received international criticism for severely restricting women’s liberties.
This is not the first time Zarif has stirred up controversy.
In December, the parliament’s security committee published a letter calling for his resignation because he has family members with United States citizenship.
He tried to resign from Pezeshkian’s cabinet in August, saying at the time that he was “not satisfied with the outcome of our work and ashamed that I could not adequately implement the expert opinions of the committees.”
He returned to his post later that month.
Zarif previously served as foreign minister in reformist president Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet and took part in negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers. A seasoned diplomat, he helped open Iran up to the West.
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