Hijab and the wrath of men in power

Eight years ago, at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, when the Indian and Iranian women were fighting for the kabaddi gold medal, an Iranian player’s hijab slipped. The Indian women immediately surrounded her and covered her face, and the hijab was put back in place. It was a heart-warming moment during a hotly-contested match. That’s how we saw it then, even though we well knew that heavens wouldn’t have fallen if the world had had a glimpse of the player’s hair, with the hijab off.

Advertisement

Now, in the context of the violent anti-hijab protests across Iran, with the death toll mounting to more than 240, one wonders — were the Iranian kabaddi players in Incheon worried about the wrath of God, to be faced at some distant point in time after death? Or were they more fearful of the wrath of God’s representatives, all men, on earth?

It’s very likely that it is God’s men they feared. It’s very likely, also, that Elnaz Rekabi, a top Iranian athlete in the sport of climbing, feared the wrath of God’s men in Iran when she gave an unbelievable excuse for having competed in South Korea without the hijab. Even as cities across Iran were seeing massive protests and violence, Elnaz violated the compulsory hijab rule when she competed at the Asian Championships in Seoul, not far from Incheon.

After returning to Iran, Elnaz made a social media post in which she explained her hijab-less show in Seoul, and apologised for ‘getting everybody worried’. “Due to bad timing, and the unanticipated call for me to climb the wall, my head covering inadvertently came off,” she explained. But a review of the video of her performance in Seoul would suggest that she was calm and composed, not hurried and flustered, and had made her appearance at the competition wall without the hijab — there is no evidence in the video that the hijab had fallen off, or she was uncomfortable due to its absence.

Judging from the video, it can be safely said that Elnaz wilfully violated the hijab rule; she is not known to have competed in international competitions without the hijab ever before, and her ponytail in Seoul was seen as a sign of solidarity with the Iranian women who are against compulsory hijab. The protesters saw her as an ally, and large crowds of people gathered to greet her at the airport when she returned to Tehran. Videos on social media showed people cheering and clapping and chanting: ‘Elnaz is a heroine.’

But being a heroine can be a terrible burden if you’re the heroine of those who oppose the men who rule in the name of God. Pragmatically, and sensibly, Elnaz has made her excuses and posed with male officials for photographs, with her head covered by a cap plus a hoodie, not a strand of hair visible to the eye.

It’s reported that only two strands of hair that were out of her hijab got a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, killed in Tehran in September. Her death, after she was allegedly clubbed on the head by Tehran’s ‘morality police’, led to nationwide protests against the murder and compulsory hijab.

Are women human?

Are Women Human? That’s the title of a book by American feminist writer Catharine A MacKinnon. Let alone the book, the title must make us think. Article 1 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.’ Article 2 adds: ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.’

The charter has 30 articles, dealing with housing, education, medical care, clothing, cultural life, etc, of human beings. Judging by how women are faring in various spheres of life, including sport, it can be argued that women are not human. Sadly, religion and religious leaders are not allies of women.

When the Women’s World Chess Championships was held in Tehran in 2017, there was a controversy over mandatory hijab for even the visiting players, irrespective of their faith. Ukraine’s Mariya Muzychuk, the 2015 world champion, and US champion Nazi Paikidze pulled out of the tournament in protest against mandatory hijab. In a social media post, Paikidze wrote: “Some consider a hijab part of culture… But I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. That’s why I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression.”

Two of India’s top players, Harika Dronavalli and Padmini Rout, took part in the Tehran tournament. They both donned a head covering, though Harika did say: “Of course, it is not comfortable to play with headscarfs, but for me most important is the World Championship so wherever it happens, it doesn’t concern me much.” Padmini echoed her views, saying: “Iran organises well. It’s not very comfortable to play with a headscarf, but okay, nothing to miss a World Championship for.”

Paikidze’s principled position can be said to be more moral than that of Harika or Padmini. It also proves that western/American women have a demonstrably higher sense of autonomy than the women of the developing and underdeveloped countries.