In the Name of the Hijab: Iran's Systematic Crackdown on Cafés, Chain Owner Sentenced to Twelve and a Half Years

Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the sentence of 12 years and 6 months in prison and the confiscation of all assets against Sadegh Saediniya, founder of the well-known café chain Saediniya. According to Deutsche Welle, the chain, which has 10 branches, closed its stores in solidarity with strike calls during the nationwide protest wave that began on December 28, 2025, and was subsequently charged with conducting "anti-state propaganda," with all branches shuttered under a judicial order.

This is not an isolated case. Citing statistics from the human rights organization HRANA, Deutsche Welle reported that on July 19 of this year alone, Iranian authorities shut down at least seven cafés and restaurants on the grounds of failing to comply with mandatory hijab regulations. A group of cafés near Vanak Park in Tehran were closed, resulting in the unemployment of at least 200 people. The report noted that the protests that erupted at the end of last December are widely regarded as Iran's largest uprising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and that the authorities' crackdown on cafés has noticeably escalated in both frequency and rationale—closures no longer occur only during protests but are ongoing.

"They closed our café on the grounds that we served customers who were not wearing the hijab, but that was just an excuse," Nasser, a café owner in Tehran, told Deutsche Welle. "Out on the streets of Tehran, women and girls have effectively abandoned the mandatory hijab, but the government is demanding that we not allow them into cafés."

In the Name of the Hijab, the Reality of a Purge

Media outlets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, such as Javan newspaper, earlier described cafés as "gathering places for protesters" posing a threat to "national security." Besides Saediniya, cafés such as "Lamiz" and "Voria" have faced similar fates—the latter owned by a well-known Iranian footballer—all shuttered by judicial order on charges of "indirectly supporting protest calls."

The report also reveals an irony: the number of cafés in Tehran surged from approximately 300 in the early 2010s to around 4,000 today, a boom that analysts themselves regard as a collective response by Iranian society to a prolonged state of crisis.

Saba Alaleh, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who has long followed political and social issues, told Deutsche Welle's Persian service: "In this environment, people are not just looking to consume or be entertained—they are looking for a place where they can temporarily escape the pressures of daily life. That is why cafés have become a 'third space'—neither home nor workplace, but somewhere in between, where one can briefly shed roles and pressures, connect with others, and feel that life is still manageable."

She pointed out that the issue is no longer merely the suppression of women who do not wear the hijab. "Authoritarian governments typically try to control the flow of information, social interactions, and the ways in which citizens organize themselves," Alaleh said. "Any space beyond the direct supervision of those in power that allows people to build trust, dialogue, and social bonds with one another will erode the government's partial monopoly over the public sphere."

Squeezing the "Third Space"

Nasser revealed that the customers in his shop are not all from affluent classes. "In many parts of Tehran, young people from middle-class families also gather in cafés; many of our customers belong to this group." The café trend is particularly popular among Iran's "Generation Z," a cohort that is bearing the brunt of Iran's rampant inflation and high cost of living.

Alaleh emphasized that to the security apparatus, even a group of young people casually gathering together can represent the emergence of independent social networks outside formal power structures. "The more widespread and entrenched these independent networks are, the harder it becomes for the government to maintain exclusive control over public space," she said. In her view, the crackdown on cafés and their customers is part of the authorities' effort to preserve their monopoly over public space.

Deutsche Welle editor: Srinivas Mazumdaru