Iranian Women are Saying “No to Hijab”

It has been mandatory since the 1979 Coup

Something big is happening in Iran right now. Women are risking their freedom and even their lives by publicly removing their hijabs, which the theocratic state says they must wear.

In 1979, there was a coup d’état in Iran to overthrow a corrupt, U.S.-supported regime. Unfortunately, the coup was led by a bunch of hyper-religious fucknuts who transformed the nation into an oppressive Islamic Republic, and shit got way worse. Soon after, all women in Iran were forced to wear only loose-fitting clothing and a hijab to cover their head and neck when in public. It represented a hard shift toward fundamentalism in the country under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

After the revolution Khomeini told a reporter, “The women who contributed to the revolution were and are women who wear modest clothes … these coquettish women, who wear makeup and put their necks, hair and bodies on display in the streets, did not fight the Shah. They have done nothing righteous. They do not know how to be useful, neither to society, nor politically or vocationally. And the reason is because they distract and anger people by exposing themselves.”

Oh, no! The men are distracted and angered by *checks notes* seeing a woman’s hair and her collar bones.

The revolution wasn’t just about breaking away from U.S. economic and political influence, but from the social influence of all those American women dressing like dirty sluts and corrupting the minds of righteous men. Sarcasm font. The term “American whores” was thrown around a lot to describe western women.

In 1983 a law came down that said that Iranian women who don’t cover their heads would receive 74 lashes. In 1995 a two-month prison term was added. There aren’t just legal repercussions, but a lot of societal pressure to wear a hijab. Since 1979 there have been two popular slogans of the Revolution regarding how women must attire themselves. One is “Wear a veil, or we will punch your head.” Another is “Death to the unveiled.” Fuckin’ yikes.

In 2017 Vida Movahed removed her hijab in the streets of Tehran, tied it to a stick, and waved it before a crowd. She was arrested and spent a month in prison. What followed was almost two years of protests of the mandatory hijab in Iran. There were numerous arrests and beatings, as well as vigilantes attacking women who protested mandatory hijabs.

In August of 2019, Iranian civil rights activist Saba Kord Afshari was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Fifteen of those years were for publicly removing her hijab, which the government said, “promoted corruption and prostitution.”

Today, July 12, the Iranian government has proclaimed “Hijab and Chastity Day” as a way to champion their regressive patriarchal bullshit laws, and a lot of women in the country have decided fuck you, nope. Many Iranian men are supporting their protest.

And the “morality police” are cracking down, with violence and mass arrests.

The crackdown on hijabs have grown of late as part of a larger strategy of repression against dissent in the nation resulting from economic hardship due to economic sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. Women have always led in the fight for civil rights, and this is a purposeful act by the Iranian government to “put women in their place” and distract from how their policies harm the nation.

People are already pissed off in Iran after decades of living under a repressive regime. Now, coupled with unpaid wages, food shortages, and disappearing pensions, many have had enough. But oppressive theocracies never go quietly. This will get worse before it gets better.

The bravery of these women is something to behold. Check out #notohijab on Twitter.

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