[ April 25, 2024 ]
“The main image of the Islamic Republic is hijab. They want to show the world that they are the Islamic Republic.”
The misogynist hijab is a symbol of the Islamic devaluation and dehumanization of women. Now some Iranian women, at immense risk, are daring to take it off outside and feel (sometimes for the first time) the wind and the sun in their hair. These courageous women are risking their lives. The President of the United States should be speaking up for them, instead of standing for those who want to wear the hijab in the West, as he did in 2009. But no one is bothering them. These women are the ones who are risking their lives.
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“Iranian Women Are Taking to Facebook to Protest Against Compulsory Hijabs,” by Sally Hayden, Vice, March 9, 2015:
Early last year Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad posted a picture online which showed her staring into a camera, the breeze visibly ruffling her hair. The public photo provoked an instant reaction and an avalanche of messages from women in her home country. The reason: she wasn’t wearing a hijab.
Since May, the Facebook page “My Stealthy Freedom” has gained more than 770,000 “likes” — of which more than 514,000 are from users based in Iran. Countless women have sent in personal stories accompanied by photos or videos of them shaking their hair in the wind. Some turn from the camera, but others face it straight on. Passport-style photos of young women wearing hijab paired with hijab-free offerings, the contrast startling.
“Being a woman in Iran means that there is always some kind of pressure inside you, at the age of seven you are banned from showing your hair. If you want to go to school you have to cover your hair, and when you want to sing, singing solo is forbidden for women as well,” 38-year-old Alinejad told VICE News. “When I was in Iran I used to create a moment of freedom in any public place when I didn’t see the police around, and I called it ‘my stealthy freedom’,” she added, explaining how the page got its moniker.
Alinejad received a human rights award at last week’s Geneva Summit. The journalist told VICE News said that this supports her idea that her mission is larger than a piece of cloth. “It’s not about a headscarf. It’s about human dignity, it’s about freedom of expression,” Alinejad said. “Just think about it. At the age of seven you have to be someone else in Iran.”
“This hair was like a hostage in the hands of the Iranian government for over 30 years,” she added.
Image via My Stealthy Freedom/Facebook.
Iran’s strictly enforced Islamic law includes a long list of “moral crimes.” Many of these specifically target women. The punishment for a female who appears in a public place without a hijab on is either a fine or a sentence of imprisonment lasting between 10 days and two months.
“They’re scared of our hair; they’re scared of our singing; they’re scared of our voice,” Alinejad opined, before saying that the hijab is a “red light” for the Iranian government. “The main image of the Islamic Republic is hijab. They want to show the world that they are the Islamic Republic.”
Alinejad left Iran in 2009. She lived in the UK up until six months ago, when she moved to New York. Now, she can’t imagine ever returning home. “I would love to go back to my country and be the voice of those women who don’t have any voice,” she said, but added that she would be worried for her own safety. “But maybe I shouldn’t say that, because I don’t want to make them happy that I’m scared.” Alinejad said that several Iranian websites had labeled her a prostitute and falsely claimed she was raped by three men in London.
“It’s disgusting and it breaks my heart when they attack me in this way,” Alinejad told VICE News. “When you want to criticize the government, when you want to say anything against them the first thing they attack is that you’re feminine, they call you a whore.”
“I think that they’re scared of me, otherwise they wouldn’t attack me,” she added. “I’m just a 45kg woman.”
Image via My Stealthy Freedom/Facebook.
She said that criticism of her quickly was extended to accusations that she has been working with foreign security services. “All the creativity that I have, they always think this is coming from the CIA or the Israeli government. But I am against all human abuse, whether it’s happening in Israel, in America, in any country. They cannot understand that journalism is criticizing human abuses in a country. In America they can criticize their own government, but why can’t we criticize our own government?”
Alinejad stressed that she was supportive of women wearing hijab if it was their choice. “I am not against hijab, I am against compulsion,” she said.
However, she is constantly concerned about the girls and women who besiege her with photos and messages that they hope to make public. Alinejad told VICE News that she will always double-check for their consent, making sure submitters are aware that they may face a backlash. She said she realizes that it’s not only the government, but “sometimes the family as well” that can put pressure on women.
“Human rights is not thinking about the majority. If there is one single woman that is suffering from rights abuse you have to be their voice. I know that there are a lot of women that believe in hijab, but compulsory hijab [still] affects those women who believe in hijab, and those men who are not forced to wear hijab. Because compulsory hijab can make a separation between families, and creates tension. There are a lot of women, just because of the way they dress they judge each other. Hijab affects men as well because it’s an insult to men because it says men can not control themselves.”
Alinejad told VICE News she doesn’t think that President Hassan Rouhani — perceived as a reformer upon his election in 2013 — has brought any tangible change. She also said she believes that the only way to effectively question the law in Iran is to operate from outside the country. “We don’t have any opportunity to challenge our government in a fundamental way,” she said….
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19 Comments
9 years ago
We need a leader who will support the real reformers in Iran, the men and women sitting in prison in Iran or exiled outside their country. In the meantime Obama fights for the “right” of women to wear the slave rag in the West. What a loser.
9 years ago
Reply to
sandra schmidt
I think all women should be respected, and that, as you point out, Obama’s actions speak volumes.
9 years ago
Obama’s policy on Iran not only hurts Israel, and maybe the US someday, but it has been terribly cruel to the people of Iran. Basically, Obama has a history of kissing the butts of the Mullahs and oppressors.
It started back in the early days of Obama’s presidency. Iran had an election. The Mullas cheated and stole the election. The people protested. The government shot peaceful protestors down on the street. Obama said nothing. Not one peep of protest or criticism. His silence was deafening. He explained it with some blather about not wanting to offend their government.
Three years later, when the US was campaigning for their election, a Facebook page, ‘Iranians for Romney,’ became prominent. They remembered.
9 years ago
I used to own a little Resale Women’s Shop in the Sellwood area of Portland, Oregon several years ago. A good number of my customers were Iranian women in their 30’s and 40’s, and they LOVED pretty dresses. They shared stories of how Iran was PRIOR to the Fundamentalist Islamic takeover. They could dress really nice and experience freedom of expression. Then, afterward, if they wanted to dress femininely, they would have to get fabrics on the black market, secretly make them in their basements, and wear them in their basements, having little secret get-togethers with family or friends. HOW VERY SAD. They also PROVIDED me with many beautiful dresses for consignment.
9 years ago
Reply to
Suzanne McKay
Quite so. The true Iranians love art, music, color, beauty, freedom–lavish elegance, parties, fun. The same was true of Afghanistan. A creative people destroyed by the evil oppression of monsters and gangsters. In the walled and gated city of the mullahs, there is opposite what they command in public. Total hypocrisy.
9 years ago
Reply to
Shushan
Yes . . . it is CRIMINAL! Makes me cry. And, yes, there is a double standard for the abusive MEN in this culture! It makes me sick to my stomach.
9 years ago
Reply to
Suzanne McKay
I have seen photos , on a blog somewhere recently of Iranians having a party in a park in the early 1970’s , also Afghans having an outdoor picnic sometime in the mid 70’s , Colour, light , expressions of joy. Then there were photos of a post Khomeini gathering , also a post Taliban gathering . Women in niquabs men glowering with that look of resentment and truculence. Absolutely day and night.
9 years ago
Reply to
Your Friend Clem
Pam has some pictures she posted some time back. the way they were dressed you would have thought they were in AMERICA. shorts smoking and all it was good to see at one time these women were not made to hide in the trash bags. maybe some day before the end of time the women of these country’s will have that freedom again. lets pray they do.
9 years ago
Reply to
Betty4440
The idea of “freedom in Iran” is probably an extremely distant possibility. We have to have faith that though it is distant it is nevertheless like a star in the night sky, distant , flickering to nothingness but still very real.
9 years ago
Reply to
Your Friend Clem
And, if we DON’T wake up here, in America, we will be just like this . . . remembering back to the 2010 Decade, and “The Way We Were” before being overrun by the Barbaric MUSLIMS!!
9 years ago
Iranian woman are so lovely, GOD bless you and keep you all safe, I pray someday SOON you will get the FREEDOM you so much deserve!!!
9 years ago
They are so hot! Just google ‘sara lime’ and you will see… It is a shame that the goat-screwers are wrapping them in tents
9 years ago
Reply to
912er
This is a tough idea , not palatable, but we will probably have to do just that.
9 years ago
Reply to
Lysy2
Yeeeees I vote for Sara Lime as the next Supreme Lider!!! I sware to be a devote beliver!!
9 years ago
The Iranian leaders are Obama’s new Middle East buddies. Every time he has a chance to stand up for freedom instead he sides with evil. I hope these women aren’t looking to him for support.
9 years ago
The real war on women which the left ignores.
9 years ago
The oafish Imams (so-called) that we have stupidly imported into our democracies have a habit of calling Western women “pieces of meat”, publicly, and no-one does anything about it .
9 years ago
What can we do to support these women? How incredibly brave of them. I suspect there are many, many women in Iran that long for the simple freedom of showing their hair and face in public, singing or wearing what they want to wear.
The fact that they are imprisoned, fined and called “prostitutes” if they do not cover themselves shows how dominated and oppressed they are by this insecure regime.
