Iranian women are defying the laws requiring them to cover their hair in public by recording themselves taking off their hijabs in an act of defiance against the nation’s hardline president. The women are posting images of themselves removing their hijabs to protest Islamic laws that forbids women from exposing their hair in public.
Iranian women are joining a massive anti-hijab campaign across Iran, shooting videos of themselves defying the Islamic Republic’s #hijab rules in public places.#No2Hijab #WalkingUnveiled pic.twitter.com/06ZP7WgwFj
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 12, 2022
The current uproar against the hijab law, according to President Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric supported by the country’s ultra-conservative religious elite, is “an organised promotion of moral corruption in Islamic society.”
The government declared July 12 as “Hijab and Chastity Day,” which means that activities will be staged to support regulations that require women to wear the hijab. Men have been showing their solidarity as Iranian women remove their headscarves to protest the day.
As the country’s Islamic rulers press down on “immoral behaviour,” Iranian rights groups have urged women to openly remove their veils on Tuesday and breach the Islamic dress code. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, author and women’s rights activist, who has been fighting a battle against Islamic veils for women made mandatory in Islamic nations, supported the move saying, “Iranian women will shake the clerical regime by removing their hijab and taking to the streets across Iran.”
Tomorrow Iranian women will shake the clerical regime by removing their hijab and taking to the streets across Iran to say #No2Hijab. This is called Women Revolution.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 12, 2022
In iran #WalkingUnveiled is a crime.
Iranian men will also join us.#حجاب_بی_حجاب pic.twitter.com/pu3uUA1teM
In the crackdown, the so-called “morality police” have arrested women, with allegations that certain authorities have asked that public transportation personnel, as well as staff in government offices, and banks overlook so-called “bad-hijab” ladies. “Morality police” have been observing medical facilities and educational institutions in numerous Iranian cities to make sure women are covering their heads.
Iranian authorities recently detained several teenage girls and others for not donning hijabs at a skateboarding competition in Shiraz, a city in southern Iran.
It is worth emphasising that women in Iran are forced to wear a hijab, which covers the head and neck and hides the hair, under Islamic law, which has been in place since the 1979 revolution. While Iranian women battle to be emancipated from the restrictions of headscarves, the hijab is used to further the Islamic agenda across the world.
