Iranian women deserve global support

The Islamic regime is trying to suppress the protests because the anti-hijab agitation has also become anti-Khamenei. Along with the ‘zan, zindagi, azaadi’ slogan, Iranians are also shouting: ‘Death to the Dictator’. Khamenei has blamed the USA and Israel for fanning the protests. The charge doesn’t stick. Instead of soul-searching and self-correcting, the theocratic rulers of Iran are seeing a conspiracy by the ‘foreign hand’.

Cry for reform: Iran’s anti-hijab protests have sent a message to the Muslim societies around the world. Reuters

Sudheendra Kulkarni

Former close aide to ex-PM Vajpayee and Founder, Forum for a New South Asia

Of all the countries I have visited, Iran is one of the most beautiful. Of all the languages spoken around the world, Persian has sounded the sweetest to my ears — with Bengali coming a close second. Persian art, culture, civilisation and spiritual traditions are incredibly rich. India and Iran have influenced each other in profound ways. But today’s Iran also has a dark side, which the entire world is witnessing right now.

‘Zan, zindagi, azaadi’ (women, life, freedom). City after city, campus after university campus in Iran are at present reverberating with this protest slogan. Why? Young women have come out of their homes to rebel against the oppressive decree imposed by the country’s Islamic government requiring women to compulsorily wear the hijab in public places. They must wear the black veil whenever they are in the streets, workplaces, government offices, schools and colleges — indeed, any place outside the four walls of their homes.

The decree came into force soon after the victory of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which overthrew the corrupt and pro-western monarchist regime of the Shah. Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the revolution and imposed a strict Shia Islamic rule, declared that any woman seen unveiled in a public place is like being seen ‘naked’. With a rule so stern, it required an equally harsh implementation mechanism. Therefore, the Iranian government empowered the ‘morality police’, who have the authority to catch and punish any woman who does not wear her hijab properly and showed even a little bit of hair.

Ayatollah Khamenei, who is Khomeini’s successor and Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, has shown no leniency in enforcing the hijab rule.

Tens of thousands of Iranian women have been punished for violating this decree. There have also been many protests against it in the past four decades. But what Iran is currently witnessing is the most widespread and most enduring wave of rebellion so far.

When there is pent-up anger in society, all it requires is a spark to light up a fast-spreading fire. This time the spark was the brutal murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the ‘morality police’ on September 16. Her crime was the violation of the Islamic dress code. More than 70 persons, mostly women, have been killed in police firings so far. But this has not stopped brave Muslim women from coming out in public, throwing off their hijab in the air — and, often, burning it.

Men are also participating in these protests in huge numbers. Indeed, the most popular song, which has quickly become the anthem for the anti-hijab protesters, is sung by a man, 25-year-old Shervin Hajipour. His melancholic music video called Baraye in the Persian language has been seen by over 15 crore people worldwide on the social media. He was arrested by the police soon after he released it.

The Islamic regime is trying to suppress the protests with brute force because the anti-hijab protests have also become anti-Khamenei. Along with the ‘zan, zindagi, azaadi’ slogan, angry Iranians are also shouting another slogan: ‘Death to the Dictator’. Khamenei has blamed the USA and Israel for fanning the protests. The charge doesn’t stick. Instead of soul-searching and self-correcting, Iran’s theocratic rulers are, predictably, seeing a conspiracy by the ‘foreign hand’.

Iran’s anti-hijab protests have sent an important message to the Muslim societies around the world, including in India. Simply put, that message is: reform, and reform fast. Whatever may have been the necessity or justification for the mandatory hijab or burqa at any time in Islamic history, there is none in the 21st century. The coercive and compulsory rule requiring Muslim women to wear the veil — and punishment to those violating it even a little bit, as the case in Iran — is a condemnable violation of universal human rights enshrined by the UN.

Wearing the hijab is not an essential requirement under Islam, as the Karnataka High Court recently ruled when some Muslim organisations insisted that Muslim girl students be allowed to wear the hijab inside classrooms. Are famous Muslim women, like tennis player Sania Mirza, former Supreme Court judge Fathima Beevi, Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and Bangladesh’s current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to be regarded as lesser Muslims for not wearing the hijab?

During my visits to Iran, I found that many educated Muslim women did not like wearing the hijab, but were doing so out of compulsion and for fear of being punished and humiliated. Some of them rebelled against it in unique ways. As soon as they were safely away from the ‘morality police’, they would cast off their veils and it was not unusual to see some of them wearing mini-skirts showing a lot of skin.

That made me wonder: true, Muslim women need not imitate the western culture, but isn’t there a middle path between a bikini and a burqa? If a Muslim woman wants to wear a burqa, it is her choice and that choice should be respected. But why should either the Muslim community or the government in a Muslim country force all women to wear the hijab or the burqa in public?

What is happening in Iran is sadly true, in different ways, about other Muslim-majority countries. In recent years, some winds of reform are sweeping across parts of the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia, at long last, women are now allowed to drive cars. In the United Arab Emirates, the government has allowed the construction of a large Swaminarayan Temple. Strict Islamisation is loosening up in Pakistan, where many women move about without the hijab.

Yet, there is also a negative reverse trend. In many Indian towns and villages, the hijab and the burqa were a rarity 40-50 years ago. They have now become more common because of the community pressure.

Clearly, internal reform in the Muslim society has a long way to go. It can succeed only when Muslims themselves start demanding a change. That is why the anti-hijab protests by the courageous Iranian women deserve solidarity and support by people from all over the world.