In every country where women are oppressed and seeking equality and emancipation from gender based discrimination, there are always women, often privileged, who choose instead to reinforce the oppression of other women. These women often gain much privilege from publicly being seen to support oppression and use their influence and visibility as a counter point to the arguments of those agitating for independence, suggesting that if they can adhere to the restrictive rules and find happiness, so can every woman. There are good number of them around the world, like Obianuju Ekeocha, Kellyanne Conway and Azadeh Namdari.

This post is about Azadeh Namdari.

She is an Iranian actress and television presenter who got very famous over the last few years in Iran for her stance on a singular issue: the promotion of Islamic dress code for all women.

About 10 years ago, Iran “began the most fierce crackdown on what is known as “bad hijab” after several decades of liberal living. A coup had just returned the country to what you can call a fundamentalist religious monarchy and Iranian women rose up to the protest the sudden loss of autonomy this new regime represented. Sadly, as women sprung up, women like Namdari also gained prominence by publicly reinforcing the new, restrictive regimes and providing themselves as avatars for the law and examples of its success. Namdari in particular decided to put her weight as a nationally respected influencer, behind the use of the “Chador”, a garment that covers all parts of a woman’s body except her face, popular amongst women in Muslim countries.

Namdari seized every opportunity to celebrate her choice to embrace the Chador as a superior one, extolling its virtues and insinuating the women who refuse to are of lesser morals. In an article published by The Independent, Namadri reportedly appeared on the front-page of the “hard-line conservative Iranian newspaper Vatan-e Emruz” with a quote from her: “Thank God, I wear the veil”.

In another interview, she reportedly said:

“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. I apologise for saying that, but I’m more beautiful with this chador”.

In a country where a morality police exists (to harass citizens, especially women) and women “guilty” of “bad hijab” are subject to punishment of up to 70 lashes or 60 days imprisonment, such rhetoric propagated by Namadri can cost people their freedom or even their lives. And the benefits are always only patriarchal.

Now that a footage of Namdari on holiday in Dubai leaked on the internet and she’s seen without her Chador, the maelstrom has begun.

In photos that emerged, Namdari was seen drinking what has been concluded to be beer as seen without her Chador in a public park, wearing a stylish jumpsuit: one thing the kind of woman Namdari extolls in her video should never do and another she shouldn’t be seen doing in public.

She quickly apologised and suggested that her Chador had momentarily slipped when the picture was taken and that the person who took the picture violated her privacy. It’s impossible to think of how a Chador can “slip” especially in these photos.

Ironically, for the Iranian dress code law for women to work, the morality police in Iran must actively and regularly violate the privacy of citizens. They act without context for why the person being prosecuted was in violation of the law and do not give the person the benefit of the doubt before they are punished. For example, in 2016 the government cracked down on Instagram models for photos in which the women had “inappropriate clothing”.