Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. - Maya Angelou
The Islamic Republic of Iran is no stranger to the policy of ruling with an iron fist. The strictly religious rulers and the openly ruthless moral police have maintained years of subservience through justifying violent crackdowns and establishing a government of pure and concentrated power. The recent waves of uprising in the country have truly exposed the above notion, but have also made it difficult to believe that the human race is more than two decades into the 21st Century.
The incident that brought the nation to the forefront of the global news was the arrest and subsequent death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on 16th September, 2022. She was captured by the Iranian moral police for allegedly flouting the Sharia-based Hijab law. Iran’s current rulebook makes it mandatory for women in the country to wear a Hijab, regardless of their religion, making it the only country in the world that mandates non-Muslim women to wear the headscarf. The death of Mahsa Amini sparked a slew of passionate protests and demonstrations throughout the country, with women symbolically burning their head coverings and shouting anti-government slogans.
Protesters in Iran holding up a picture of Mahsa Amini
While the impact of social media and extensive news coverage in recent times have ensured continuous attention and support from all over the world, this is not the first time that women in the nation spoke out against the Hijab mandate. The law itself was introduced in the country only after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989, declared that women were to follow the Islamic dress code. The hijab was made mandatory in government and public offices in 1980, and finally for all women in 1983.
In 2017, on the 27th of December, pictures and videos of human rights activist Vida Mohaved went viral, in which she was seen taking off and waving her headscarf as an outright act of rebellion. This one action prompted the beginning of the movement “Girls of Enghelab Street,” with women from all walks of life choosing to re-enact Mohaved’s form of rebellion throughout 2018 and well into 2019, with the 2022 outcry being its most recent manifestation.
Vida Mohaved standing on a utility box and waving her headscarf, symbolising the birth of the “Girls of Enghelab Street”
What makes the recent situation much more crucial is the fact that it aims to control a very basic part of a woman’s life by making it a matter of state concern. In a world that has more pressing concerns like an increase in global warming, the repercussions of coming out from a global pandemic, rising poverty and an exceedingly turbulent economic market, to be rigid about laws that govern a citizen’s clothing seems inconsequential. And yet, Iranian authorities have shown no sign of even listening to, let alone accepting, the demands made by the country’s people, instead choosing to focus on policing and punishing every single person who dares to speak out against the regime. While it seems redundant to state why the Hijab mandate is an outdated law that needs modification, it is paramount to understand why the outcry against it has risen to such heights and still remains unheeded. The law attempts to control the autonomy of women, a principle that is followed liberally by most Islamic countries, and yet the execution is seldom as severe as it is in Iran. The phrasing of the law is such that it leaves the judgement of whether a woman’s clothes are ‘immodest’ or ‘promoting corruption and prostitution’ or ‘against the rules of Islam’ up to any and all figures of authority. These judgements are often highly subjective, and the woman ends up being heavily punished so as to become a warning for others, thus creating a cycle of violence and oppression.
Women of Iran protesting against the forced Hijab, days after the Islamic Revolution in 1979
Any form of prolonged tyranny is bound to lead to internal revolts, and such is the case with Iran today. The country has hardly had a period of peace ever since the 1979 revolution, and the Anti-Hijab Protest is just another brick that is breaking off from an already crumbling wall. The dissent that originated from thousands of cornered women, has since garnered traction to a level that even men who are in positions of relatively high power in the regime have spoken out in favour of them. The men of the country have chosen to utilise the existing status quo to their advantage and have joined the rallies in favour of abolishing the law. This has prompted the authorities to clamp down on the streets yet again, with the first known execution being carried out on 8th December, 2022. Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old was convicted for wounding a government security guard at a rally in Tehran.
His is just one of the few deaths that have been recorded and accepted by the authorities. There have been tens of thousands of women whose deaths have gone unnoticed as they were either punished for disobeying the decree over the years or who have succumbed to police gunfire that rained down on the unarmed women as they shouted for their freedom on the streets.
A woman symbolically cuts her hair in public as a part of the ongoing protests.
Iran is a land with a rich cultural history, and is to this day, a geopolitical pivot point of the Middle East. With a position that is both strategically beneficial as well as geographically versatile, the country truly is ripe with regards to potential for development. And yet, the constant and ever-growing tide of protests against the Iranian Republic and the downright tyrannic oppression of the masses serves as a gigantic barrier that alienates the country and hampers its growth. The right to freedom of expression is one of the most basic and important rights that is awarded to the citizens of any nation. It is one that seems like it should be a default, a given condition that is synonymous with letting humans live a life of free will.
The women of Iran are not fighting for simply the removal of the law. They are fighting for the freedom to choose whether they wear the hijab or not according to their own volition. This desperation for autonomy becomes more apparent once the contrasting situation in India is put into view. School girls in the Indian state of Karnataka revolted against the authorities when the school mandated that girls would be barred from the premises if they wore a hijab with their school uniforms. The unrest in Iran and India taken simultaneously bring forth the very heart of the matter. The revolts both surround the same garment and affect the same demographic in society. And yet the joint dissent against the absolutely contradictory rules goes on to show that the people are fighting for their basic sense of autonomy. They are fighting against the government that is trying to turn an item of personal faith into a religious and political weapon.
"They are fighting against a government that is trying to turn an item of personal faith into a religious and political weapon."
The Anti-Hijab protests are the most recent among the innumerable cries of dissent and disharmony that have emerged from the citizens of Iran, and it is one that truly poses a major opposition to the already tumultuous foundation of the country’s ruling power. The widespread defiance only emphasises how important it is for a government to respect the freedom and opinions of its citizens, and goes to show that it is indeed necessary for both rules and people who enforce the rules to change along with the times.
- PRIYANKA SINHA