Iranian TV host who promotes Islamic dress code sparks backlash for drinking beer without hijab

An Iranian state television presenter has sparked outrage after footage emerged of her drinking beer without wearing a hijab while on holiday in Switzerland.

The consumption of alcohol in Islam is prohibited and alcohol has been banned in Iran since the establishment of Islamic Republic government in 1979.

Islamic dress codes are strictly enforced by 'morality police' in the country and women’s hair and body must be covered in public. Wearing the hijab, a head covering worn in public by Muslim women, is compulsory.

Azadeh Namdari, who is also a presenter and actress, has actively endorsed wearing the hijab. Hard-line conservative Iranian newspaper Vatan-e Emruz published a photo of her in a full hijab in 2014 under the headline: “Thank God, I wear the veil”.

The TV presenter has also been a keen proponent of the black chador which is a large piece of cloth that covers women from head to toe and leaves only the face exposed. It has been extolled by conservatives for offering women the best protection.

Ms Namdari said she was proud to be a chadori in the front-page interview with the paper – a saying used to refer to women who choose to wear the chador.

"You have to believe to be a chadori. [Otherwise] you'll be exposed ..." she said. "Thank God that I went on air, I was a chadori. I felt safe and I felt respected. All of these are blessings that the chador has brought me”.

She added: "I apologise for saying that, but I'm more beautiful with this chador”.

Ms Namdari has now been fiercely criticised and branded a hypocrite for being photographed holidaying without wearing a hijab and appearing to drink what looks like a beer. Critics on social media accused her of "hypocrisy" and "dual-behaviour”.

Her name has been used as the Persian hashtag #Azadeh_Namdari, with the hashtag having been used over 11,000 times since the video emerged.

The backlash has prompted a torrent of memes of Ms Namdari, including an image of her with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka Photoshopped into her handbag. Another person has juxtaposed an image of the presenter in full hijab alongside two further photos of Namdari without a hijab and while drinking beer: "What she feeds us with versus what she feeds herself with!"

"The problem is not #Azadeh_Namdari or people like her. The problem is the ideology, culture and the system that forces individuals in society to have dual-behaviour for some reasons," read a tweet from an account attributed to the pro-government cleric Abolfazl Najafi-Tehrani.

The presenter has now sought to explain herself in a two-minute video posted on the Young Journalists’ Club (YJC) news agency site under the headline: "Azadeh Namdari's reaction to the publication of scandalous photos in cyberspace".

Ms Namdari said she had been sitting alongside members of her family and "maharem" - close relatives who a woman is not required to wear a hijab among – in a park. She claimed her scarf had fallen abruptly and the clip was immediately recorded by a random person. She did not mention the bottles of beer in the video or seek to explain them.

But her explanation has prompted yet further criticism and people have branded her a “liar” and accused her of attempting to pull the wool over Iranian's eyes.

In Iran, women who do not wear a hijab or are seen to be wearing a 'bad hijab' by allowing some of their hair to show face punishments spanning from fines to imprisonment.

Nevertheless, there has been resistance to the enforced hijab over recent years, with some women shaving their hair and dressing as men. What's more, in a bid to show solidarity with their female counterparts last year men in the country appeared in photos wearing hijabs with their wife or female relative next to them with their hair uncovered.