Women aren’t listening.

Emboldened since the women-led protests that broke out last fall, which turned into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic Republic, growing numbers of Iranian women have started going around without head scarves and wearing Western-style clothes.

The government told a cafe owner named Mohammad to force his women customers to wear hijab, but he just put a sign on the wall saying wearhijab and left it at that.

In Iran, Mohammad said, forcing women to wear the hijab is a lost cause.

“In all honesty, we didn’t get upset when they shut down our cafe,” said Mohammad, who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid further legal repercussions. “In fact, we felt good about it, because this is really good P.R. for us and our business.”

Good PR plus a little vacation! Win win!

His nonchalance suggested the depth and speed of change in Iran, where the theocratic government considers the dress code a matter of existential importance.

How pathetic is that? A government that considers forcing women to wear bags over their heads a matter of existential importance – it’s laughable in one way, but completely understandable in another. Women are these terrifying stealth weapons who can trick a man into wasting his resources on some other man’s child, so they must be controlled and bullied and above all concealed.

When officers came to shut down Mohammad’s cafe, he said, he pointed at a table where two women were sitting, one unveiled and the other wearing the conservative, full-length and all-black veil known as the chador.

“I told him, ‘Eventually you have to accept this. I’m not a sociologist, but I’m pretty sure what you’re doing has almost no effect,’” Mohammad said.

It’s a matter of principle.