This is the moment the daughter of a top Iranian official who helped organise the brutal crackdown on protesters over the death of Mahsa Amini – and who enforced the same dress code that led to her killing – walks down the aisle in a strapless wedding dress.
The footage, reportedly filmed at the luxury Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran, Iran, in May 2024, surfaced online on 17th October this year (2025).
As Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) at the time of Amini’s death in 2022, Ali Shamkhani was one of the senior officials directly involved in directing the state’s response to the nationwide protests that followed.
The SNSC is Iran’s highest security body, bringing together the Interior Minister, Intelligence Minister, Revolutionary Guards commanders and judiciary chiefs, all under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In that position, Shamkhani helped design and authorise the crackdown on demonstrators and defend the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab and public-morality policies — the same rules that saw 22-year-old Amini beaten into a coma and killed by the morality police for showing her hair.
The leaked video shows Shamkhani, now a senior adviser to Khamenei and a member of the Expediency Council, leading his daughter to her wedding in a Western-style ceremony with unveiled women and live music.
Video appears to show Iran's top politician Ali Shamkhani, 70, with daughter Setayesh at the wedding celebration in Tehran hotel, Iran in May, 2024. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video(newsX)
Iranian activist Masih Alinejad shared the footage on X, where it quickly went viral, drawing over 300,000 views and fuelling anger at what many called the regime’s “hypocrisy”.
She wrote: “The daughter of Ali Shamkhani, one of the Islamic Republic’s top enforcers, had a lavish wedding in a strapless dress. Meanwhile, women in Iran are beaten for showing their hair. They enforce Islamic values with bullets, batons and prisons on everyone but themselves.”
The event was reportedly attended by members of Iran’s political elite and took place at one of Tehran’s most exclusive venues, with some reports saying it cost about EUR 50,000 (GBP 43,428).
Video appears to show Iran's top politician Ali Shamkhani, 70, with daughter Setayesh at the wedding celebration in Tehran hotel, Iran in May, 2024. Note: Photo is a screenshot from a video(newsX)
Video shows scenes of dancing and unveiled women in the hall, in stark contrast to the strict hijab laws ordinary Iranians face under threat of arrest.
Under a law introduced in June 2025, women and girls as young as 12 face severe penalties for not wearing the hijab, including imprisonment and flogging.
In this context, images of Shamkhani’s unveiled daughter at an opulent wedding have reignited public anger over double standards among Iran’s ruling class.
One social-media user commented: “They preach modesty while their own daughters parade in designer dresses. The rules are for you, not for them.”
Even hardliners joined the backlash. Politician Ali Akbar Raefipour wrote on X: “Can we ask how we can tell people to be patient with economic sanctions when the former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council holds his daughter's wedding in one of the country’s most luxurious hotels?”
Mahsa Amini, 22, poses in an undated photo. She is in a coma and fighting for her life after being arrested in Tehran, Iran, by the Islamic republic's so-called morality police. Note: Picture is private (Newsflash)
Another conservative user cited Shamkhani’s wealth, saying: “From the mansion revealed in the Israeli attack to his children’s oil ventures and now this costly wedding, his lifestyle shows a deep divide with the people in dire economic circumstances.”
Shamkhani, 70, is a former Defence Minister and senior military commander who has served under Khamenei since the early years of the Islamic Republic.
He narrowly survived an Israeli air strike on his Tehran apartment in June, which left him severely injured and reportedly led to the amputation of one of his legs.
Officials close to the regime have defended the wedding, with former state broadcaster head Ezzatollah Zarghami claiming it was a “female-only” ceremony and accusing Israel of leaking the video to “assassinate” the regime’s reputation.
(Mike Leidig/ newsX)