While his comments were vague and did not promise to change the existing laws, they were a recognition of how potent the issue of the hijab remains, according to Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.
“I think he knows how pervasive women’s rejection of compulsory hijab has been,” he said.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, or HRANA, estimates that more than 18,000 people have been arrested.
In his speech, Khamenei also criticized the West for its treatment of women.
Women in the West are “alienated,” he said, adding that the “Western capitalist system is a patriarchal system,” according to Mehr News Agency.