Iranian rights activists have urged women to publicly remove their veils on "National Day of Hijab and Chastity" on Tuesday, risking arrest for defying the Islamic dress code as the country's hardline rulers crack down on "immoral behavior".

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Under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest.

But decades after the revolution, clerical rulers still struggle to enforce the law, with many women of all ages and backgrounds wearing tight-fitting, thigh-length coats and brightly colored scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.

Critics and activists see the establishment's stepped-up efforts to enforce hijab compliance as part of a wider clampdown on dissent amid deepening resentment over economic hardship at home and growing Western pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

As the state holds ceremonies across the country to celebrate the "National Day of Hijab and Chastity", rights activists have criticized the move and called on women to remove the veil.

"The National Day of Hijab and Chastity is only an excuse to target women and launch a new wave of repression against Iranian people and in particular women," dozens of prominent women's rights activists said in a joint statement on Monday.

In a display of civil disobedience, the hashtag #No2Hijab has been widely distributed on social media for days by Iranians outside and inside the country. Videos of women removing their hijab as they walk in the streets or resisting the morality police have flooded social media. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos.

"I should have the right to decide what I want to wear and not be imprisoned because of my choice. #No2Hijab," tweeted a female user. Some women who voluntarily wear a veil and men have joined the campaign too.

"I don't have a veil to remove. But I will come to the street to support and defend the women and girls of my land. #No2Hijab," tweeted @mashmolak. The New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) said on Monday there were "serious concerns over more potential violence and detentions on July 12".

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said several people were arrested on Monday. The #No2Hijab campaign overlapped with months of protests by teachers, retirees, workers and government employees over unpaid wages, low pensions and sky-rocketing food prices that have hurt the establishment's legitimacy with protesters calling for political change.

"This is like pouring fuel on fire. People are already angry because of high inflation and rising prices. They are very frustrated," said a former Iranian government official. "Coercion has never worked." Waves of the hijab protests have hit the clerical establishment in the past years. In 2014, rights activist Masih Alinejad started a Facebook campaign "My Stealthy Freedom", where she shared pictures of unveiled Iranian women sent to her.

It was followed by a campaign in 2017 for women to wear white headscarves on Wednesdays and the hijab protests in 2018 when women took to the streets holding their veils aloft. Dozens of women have been jailed in Iran for their activism against forced veiling, according to rights groups. "The establishment fears a revolution by women that has already started today," Alinejad told Reuters.

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Masih Alinejad, a US-based Iranian journalist, started a social media campaign in 2014 encouraging women in Iran to share self-portraits without the Islamic veil, which she then shares on her Facebook page, "My Stealthy Freedom."

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She said campaigners had continued to send her pictures and videos after Tehran's Revolutionary Court said on Monday that they could face up to 10 years in prison.

"Today I have received lots of videos from inside Iran. And women in these videos are braver and angrier than before," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.

She said Iran's government was "scared of women practicing civil disobedience and engaging in peaceful protest."

Many Muslim women cover their heads in public with the hijab as a sign of modesty, although some critics see it as a sign of female oppression.

Under Iran's Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair in public. Violators are publicly admonished, fined or arrested.

Those in breach of the law can face a prison sentence of up to two months, according to rights group Amnesty International, which says women and girls are regularly stopped in the street by morality police and vigilantes.

The head of the Tehran's Revolutionary Court said those sharing protest videos with Alinejad – who Tehran deems to be acting on behalf of the United States – could be imprisoned for up to a decade under laws relating to cooperating with an enemy state.

"All those women who send the video footage of removing their hijab to her will be sentenced to between one to 10 years of jail," Musa Ghazanfarabadi told the semi-official Fars news agency.

The Iranian Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

At least 39 women were arrested last year in connection with anti-hijab protests, according to Amnesty.

Iran's laws are written in a "very broad and vague manner" and that can be used by courts to increase penalties for women's rights protesters, said Raha Bahreini, an Iran researcher with Amnesty.

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