IRANIAN ACTIVISTS CALL ON WOMEN TO PUBLICLY UNVEIL TO PROTEST CRACKDOWNS

Tue 12July 2022:

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 crackdown on “immoral behaviour”, Reuters reported.

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 coloured 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 clamp-down on dissent amid deepening resentment over economic hardship at home and growing Western pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.

We, Iranian women are going to the streets to protest the mandatory hijab on July 12, and for this movement we need international support and visibility in the world. Please support us. #حجاب_بی_حجاب #no2hijab pic.twitter.com/WF2dvsu6cr

— meri (@nimalover1) July 7, 2022

As the state holds ceremonies across the country to celebrate the “National Day of Hijab and Chastity”, rights activists have criticised 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.

Brave women in Iran are protesting gender apartheid by walking around without a hijabpic.twitter.com/xKbPHPnWR6

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 12, 2022

#IranInReality: A brave Iranian woman who refused to wear the compulsory hijab was arrested immediately by the oppressive police of the Islamic Republic dictatorship. Islamic veil/hijab is mandatory in #Iran and women get jailed if they refuse to wear it!pic.twitter.com/oO11D1XPvJ

— Shayan X 🏳️ (@RealShayanX) July 11, 2022

A woman in Iran defying hijab law on hijab day. She also rides a bike which is also forbidden by law in Iranpic.twitter.com/UEYKhGovp7

— mina bai (@bai_mina) July 12, 2022

See how these teenagers are mocking the morality police and clerical regime by #WalkingUnveiled
It is beautiful that men are cheering for Hijab-less women in the streets. This is Shiraz, Iran. New generation will get rid of gender apartheid very soon.#No2Hijab #حجاب_بی‌_حجاب pic.twitter.com/7flOzi1yyt

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 12, 2022

No veil to remove

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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