TEHRAN – A private family celebration turned into a political firestorm in Iran as a leaked video of the wedding of Ali Shamkhani, one of Iran’s most senior officials and a key advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has gone viral, showing his daughter and wife in Western-style clothing, while other women at the event appeared without hijabs.
The clip, circulating widely on social media earlier this month, ignited fierce debate about cultural norms, hypocrisy, and the private lives of Iran’s elite.
The controversy reached public eye when, during the military commander’s funeral, a journalist asked Shamkhani directly about the leaked footage. His response was brief but defiant: “My answer to this latest controversy is the same as my response to the previous issue,” he said, adding pointedly, “I am still alive.”
Shamkhani’s reaction extended beyond Iranian borders. On social media platform, he posted a tweet in Hebrew repeating the same phrase, a line he has used before. In a dramatic echo of past events, Shamkhani had employed the same words in June after surviving an Israeli airstrike targeting his Tehran home.
The leaked wedding video has not only sparked outrage online but also sent ripples through political circles in Tehran, highlighting the ongoing tension between the private lives of senior officials and the strict public expectations imposed on them.
For many Iranians, the images of women without hijabs at the wedding have become a flashpoint in the country’s ongoing debates about social freedoms, power, and privilege.
