In a speech in the holy city of Mashhad, President Hassan Rouhani criticized strict enforcement of the veil in Iran and said that society does support wearing of the veil. During a different speech to a more conservative crowd, he said people had “given blood” for the veil in Iran.

“Do we think that elevating a society is [done] through vans and minibuses and policeman and soldiers? Culture is not made right by this,” said Rouhani, referring to the controversial practices of the religious police, who enter major city squares and arrest or fine women for liberally interpreting the country’s hijab laws. Often, young violators are rounded up in vans and taken to a local police station.

He said, “The path to promote culture is through the clerics, the seminary, researchers and college professors. Is the path to modesty with a van? We don’t have any other way? Our own women are the educators of society, the researchers and professors of society — you mean they don’t know themselves how to establish modesty in society and promote the hijab?”

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, which is run by the administration, Rouhani told Interior Minister Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli, who was among the crowd during the speech, “They used to tell us that once you tried something and it didn’t work, not to do the same exact thing the next day. It has to be modified.”