Majid Ghasemi orders 15 Pasargad Group staff fired over dress

Majid Ghasemi, chief executive of Bank Pasargad, ordered the dismissal of 15 employees on Tuesday 27 October 2026 during a visit to "Pad", one of the companies of the Pasargad Financial Group. Fourteen of them were women who, according to managers, had not complied with compulsory hijab, and one man was fired for wearing jeans. Ghasemi also removed Pad's chief executive the same day.

The news was first published by IranWire. According to its report, a few hours after the visit, staff at the group's other companies were told to come to work from the next day in the prescribed dress or they would not be let in. Employees at some of these companies were paid 10 million tomans to buy the clothing the holding wants.

Bread versus dress

The Pasargad Financial Group is one of Iran's largest business conglomerates, active in banking, insurance, information technology, mining, energy and construction. A supplementary pension contract the group signed in 2022 covered about 40,000 employees. Dismissals in such a group tie compulsory hijab directly to employees' jobs and income.

Tehran prosecutor: Guilds Basij should police clothing sales

At the same time, Ali Salehi, Tehran's general and revolutionary prosecutor, called on Friday 30 October, at the "chastity and hijab" working group, for the "Guilds Basij" to be used to monitor clothing sellers, workshops and fashion houses. He ordered unlicensed businesses to be identified and action taken against fashion houses and workshops he called "underground". Salehi had earlier, in the same working group, ordered tourism tour pages to be blocked.

Compulsory hijab has now moved from the street to the workplace and the clothing market, and holds employees' livelihoods hostage.