Ma`rifat Farhangi Ejtemaei

This study analyzes discursive confrontations surrounding hijab in Iran during the 2010s (the 1390s in the Iranian calendar) and explains the process through which the discourse of “customary hijab” became hegemonic. Drawing on the theoretical framework of discourse analysis developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the research demonstrates that anti-hijab discourse followed an increasingly aggressive trajectory from the 1980s to the 2010s. The findings indicate that numerous virtual campaigns, employing strategies such as gradual normalization, a shift toward violence, and the reproduction of a victimhood narrative, contributed to the radicalization of this discourse. In contrast, the hijab-supporting discourse focused on diagnosing and critiquing hijab and chastity policies implemented over the past four decades, within which three sub-discourses—functional, non-governmental, and identity-based—were identified. The outcome of these confrontations was not the victory of either competing discourse; rather, the hegemony of the “customary hijab” discourse became stabilized in the social speech and practices of Iranian society through floating signifiers such as “optional hijab,” “beauty and fashion,” “modesty and chastity,” and “the individual right to choose one’s clothing.”