In the capital city of Tehran, ladies are encouraged and mandated to put on headscarves, as an order of respect to the mothers, but more women, both young and old, seem to be choosing not to do so, maybe for the first time, since the chaotic days following the 1979 Iran Islamic Revolution.
The resistance follows months of demonstrations against the country’s Morality Police, following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, for donning her headscarf too loosely. Even while the protests seem to have toned down, Iran’s theocracy has been facing fresh threat from certain women, who choose to wear their hair unveiled in public. The women’s response also exposes rifts in Iran, that had been confidential for a long time.
Authorities have threatened legal action and shut down several companies, that catered to non-hijabi women. In subways, airports, and other public locations, police and volunteers offered verbal warnings. Drivers who had female passengers without head coverings in their cars received text messages.
However, there has been a growing concern in Iran that, the government may push too hard, and rekindle the dissent. The Islamic Republic has been dealing with economic problems, brought on by its conflict with the West over its quickly developing nuclear program. The protests came to light at a bad time for the country.
Some ladies have said, they have had enough of the mandatory wearing of head veils, regardless of the consequences. They contend that, they are fighting to ensure their daughters’ futures and greater freedom in Iran. Some women imply that, the teaming number women supporting the course, have made it very difficult for authorities to clamp down on them.
“Do they want to close down all business,” 23-year-old Shervin queried. Shervin was seen with a short hair, without a headscarf in Tehran. “If I go to a Police Station, will they shut it down,” shervin asked again.
The decision made by Vida, 29, and two of her pals to stop wearing headscarves in public was about more than just headscarves, she claimed. “This is a message for the government, leave us alone.”
Iran and neighboring Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, are the only two nations where wearing of hijabs are mandatory for all women. It was uncommon to see women without hijabs before the September protests, after the death of Mahsa Amini. Though on few occasions, was their hijabs hang loosely around their shoulders. Today, it is common to see women without hijabs in various parts of Tehran.
The hijab has been symbol of modesty before males outside of their families, and reverence before God for staunch Muslim women. The hijab and all comprehensive black chador worn by women, have long served as political symbols in Iran.
The Story Of Mandatory Hijab Wearing
In 1936, Iranian king, Reza Shah Pahlavi repelled law concerning hijab, as part of his efforts to imitate the West. The prohibition was abolished five years later, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. On the other hand, a large number of Iranian women in the middle and upper class chose not to wear the headscarf.
Some women who assisted in the fall of the shah in 1979, accepted the chador. A garment that covers the body from head to toe except for the face. Later that year, when the American embassy was taken over and hostages were being held prisoner, images of armed women wrapped in black fabric started to circulate among Americans.
However, other women objected to the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s directive that, the hijab should be worn in public. It was made into law in 1983, and those who break it face fines and a two-month jail term.
Forty years later, hijab wearing has risen to the center of discussion, as new generation of Iranians women opposed to mandatory hijab. It has now become common to see women without hijabs in Tehran. The Iranian government has since flexed its muscles on the women, in an effort to stop the practice.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, averred in April that “removing the hijab is not Islamically or politically permissible.”
