Admiral Ali Shamkhani's daughter holds her father under the arm. Wearing a sleeveless, deeply cut wedding dress in Western style, she is handed over to her future husband. Under a thin bridal veil, her long hair hangs freely.
Among the guests in the room, several women - including Shamkhani's wife - can be seen with bare arms and legs and without the obligatory veil.
Beaten down brutally
The leaked video from Setayesh Shamkhani's wedding last year has sparked accusations of hypocrisy within Iran's power elite. 70-year-old Ali Shamkhani is an advisor to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is known as a strong advocate for the regime's brutal crackdown on women.
Iranian women's rights are severely limited, including through the veil requirement, which was the starting point for the protest wave in 2022 - demonstrations that were beaten down with deadly violence from the regime's security forces. A number of women's rights activists are behind bars for daring to challenge the conservative legislation.
Highlights the gaps
The visible luxury in the wedding video has also led to outrage. For ordinary Iranians, who are struggling with inflation and unemployment under the Western sanctions against the country, Shamkhani's wedding is a mockery that further highlights the deep gaps between the working class and the elite.
According to independent exiled Iranian media, the laws of the Islamic Republic mean that Ali Shamkhani should be sentenced to up to 99 lashes for the wedding.
The video shows that the regime "does not have confidence in its own laws" and only "wants to make people's lives miserable", summarizes Iranian journalist Amir Hossein Mosalla on X.
