On 27 December 2017, 31-year-old Vida Movahed removed her headscarf, tied it to a stick and stood atop a telecoms box on busy Enghelab (Revolution) Street in Tehran. Vida was arrested after her silent and peaceful protest against the hijab went viral.

A week later, a group of girls took off their hijabs in other parts of Tehran. More women, supported by men, soon joined the movement, dubbed with #Girls_of_Enghelab_Street on Twitter. At time of writing, 29 protestors had been detained.