June
27, 2023
The
sweeping public protests that erupted across Iran in response to the death of
Mahsa (Jina) Amini in custody of Iran’s morality police last September have
been characterized by many observers as the first feminist uprising in the
region. The visually powerful images of women and girls defying compulsory
hijab laws in the streets and the slogan “women, life, freedom” have
strengthened this characterization and drawn broad international sympathy. But
the sweeping protests and their demands for fundamental change were met with a
brutal government crackdown that resulted in hundreds of deaths and tens of
thousands of arbitrary arrests. Almost nine months later, women’s right to
choose their own way of dressing remains at the center of the protest movement.
Understanding why requires a closer look at how the broader struggle of women
for equal rights in Iran has evolved over the years.
Charting
the course of women’s right movement in Iran
Iranian
women experience discrimination in law and in practice in ways that deeply
impact their lives, particularly with regard to marriage, divorce and custody
issues. Post-1979 compulsory hijab laws affect virtually every aspect of
women’s public life in Iran. In today’s Iran, a woman’s access to employment,
education, social benefits and proper health care — and even her mere public
presence in society— depends on complying with compulsory hijab laws, which are
routinely enforced through a web of rules and arbitrary interpretation by state
agents as well as businesses. However, despite its overarching impact on
women’s rights and freedoms, the choice of dress code as a right was not taken
up by Iran’s women’s movement as a collective issue until recently. Instead,
the battle against enforcement of the compulsory wearing of the hijab was
largely fought by the individual acts of millions of women, including
activists, across the country – rather than via groups or institutions.
Iran
has a decades-long history of movements promoting women’s rights, both before
and after the revolution of 1979. Most of them pursued a vision of equality
under law and sought to redress the gap regarding legal protection by promoting
international human rights instruments. The most notable example after the
revolution is the coalition of Islamist and secular feminist activists who came
together to establish the “One Million Signature Campaign to Demand the Repeal
of Discriminatory Laws” in 2006. Focus issues included age discrimination in
establishing criminal responsibility and marriageable age, inequality in
inheritance and discrimination of mothers as guardians in case of divorce. The
issue of the compulsory hijab was notably absent. While the “One Million
Signature Campaign” did not achieve its stated goal of fully repealing the set
of relevant laws, it created strong bonds among students and labor activists
and trained a generation of activists in legal advocacy. Similar to other
movements, this group of activists came under significant state pressure and
faced large-scale arrests during the Ahmadinejad presidency.
The
pressure on the movement combined with the repression that followed the 2009
presidential election protests increasingly foreclosed avenues for legal
reforms and led dozens of human rights defenders and activists to go into
exile. It also shifted the focus of women’s rights defenders towards promoting
women’s representation, including the presence of women in public life. During
the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, Shahindokht Molaverdy, the then-vice
president for women and family affairs and a figure close to the women’s rights
movement, came under immense pressure from the judiciary to prevent any such
change and was only able to take minor steps in advancing women’s rights.
During this period, the women’s movement focused most of its activities on
achieving more representation in elected positions, greater women’s attendance
of sporting events, and better protection against sexual harassment in public
as well as work spaces.
Digital
dissent: How social media changed the movement
The
expansion of internet access in Iran has been integral to the next shift in
activism. It has enabled millions to share information outside official
channels of communication and also blurred the line between the public and the
private as it enables youth and women to blog about their lived experiences and
share images of ordinary life on social media. Despite state-imposed internet restrictions,
popular social media platforms such as Instagram, are used widely by lifestyle
bloggers, women-led businesses, and public figures to promote their activities.
Millions of Iranians use VPNs to circumvent internet censorship.
This
shift from legal advocacy to digital social protest continues to push the
boundaries of the social debate in public life. Since the summer of 2020,
dozens of Iranian women from various backgrounds have taken to social media to
share their stories of sexual harassment and assault by influential men in
various industries. They have formed their own #metoo movement and achieved the
arrests of a number of those accused of harassment, community condemnations,
and exoneration of two actresses who had faced defamation charges for speaking
up.
It
was also this shift in women’s rights discourse and the accompanying expansion
of online platforms that empowered the exiled activist Masih Alinejad to
initiate formal campaigns against the compulsory hijab starting in 2014. The
issue was forced to the center of the political debate in December 2017, when
31-year old Vida Movahed stood on a metal utilities box on Enghelab
(Revolution) Street in central Tehran without a hijab and silently waved a
white scarf from a stick, sparking a series of acts of bold defiance by women
who became known as the girls of revolution street.
The
compulsory hijab and state-society relations in Iran
Iran’s
penal code criminalizes appearance of women in public space without “sharia
hijab”. The offense is punishable by a fine, or imprisonment between 10 days to
two months. According to a government-linked survey that was conducted in 2014,
almost half of the respondents took the view that the government should not
intervene on the issue. The corresponding figure in 2005 was 34%. A more recent
report published by the parliamentary research center states that 70 percent of
Iranian women do not abide by the government’s interpretation of hijab
regulations under Islamic law. The report also flags the risk that further
criminalization of disobeying sharia hijab legislation can weaken government’s
social legitimacy. Despite officials’ admission that Iranians’ views are
shifting, enforcement of the hijab remains an article of faith among hardliners
in Iran. The government has invested significant resources in promoting and
enforcing hijab laws, as well as initiated harsh crackdowns against those who
peacefully mobilize against them. Government propaganda equates observance of
hijab with the preservation of family values and traditional social structures.
Recently
pronounced prolonged sentences against human rights defenders for peacefully
opposing the hijab, as well as viral scenes of police violence against women
and girls who do not abide by compulsory hijab have contributed to public
frustration and stoked political dissent. The 2021 elections, which solidified
the control of hardliners, also gave rise to a wave of enforcement of repressive laws against women,
including hijab compliance. In July 2022, a video of 28-year old Sepideh Rashno
resisting harassment and vigilante enforcement of the compulsory hijab on a bus
went viral. Rashno was arrested and, a month later, dragged in front of cameras
to apologize. In the footage, Rashno looked pale and had dark circles around
her eyes. Instead of instilling fear among Iranian women, social media
responses to the incident suggest it rather created widespread indignation.
In
many ways, continued enforcement of the compulsory hijab can be viewed as the
quintessential symbol of popular disconnect with the Islamic republic: Amid the
government’s mounting inability to meet people’s basic needs, an increasingly
unpopular and abusive policy remains imposed on people and is enforced with
impunity by state agents. In that sense, the fate of Mahsa (Jina), a young
woman wearing an outfit considered unremarkable to many, was one that could
befall many Iranian women or their loved ones. Protesters saw her death at the
hands of morality police not as an accident, but as the result of a systemic
pattern of brutal violation of women’s right that is exercised with both
callousness and impunity.
Those
who took to the street in protest to demand fundamental change included
political and social elites that had hesitated to join earlier street protests.
Now they showed support by removing their headscarves in public. This
established an important thread of continuity between earlier protest movements
– as discussed above – and the present defiance of women of compulsory hijab
laws. The women and girls on the street view their individual acts of
resistance as connected to a broader struggle. Ultimately, the matter of the
hijab is not just about women claiming back the right to dress as they wish
from the state, or about advocating for the elimination of a set of abusive
state enforcement practices. Rather, the real stakes are a multilayered fight
for the rewriting of the social laws, codes and practices that determine a
women’s life and place in society, including within families. For example, nine
months after her release, Rashno wrote on her Instagram page how, during her
detention, her conservative brother and father had come closer to supporting
her cause. Several other women have written about how the movement has enabled
new conversations with their families about their choice of dress, their
position at home and their role in society.
Is
fundamental change imminent?
It
is precisely because the matter is much more fundamental than a choice of
clothes that the Iranian government has not shown signs of reversing course.
The authorities have responded to the mounting resistance against the
compulsory hijab with an array of policies and draft legislation that seek to
increase enforcement of the compulsory dress code through facial recognition
detection, pressure on businesses to enforce laws, and punishments that include
fines and deprivation of social benefits for those who refuse to comply. This
vision was clearly outlined in a policy document prepared by the government’s
Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in 2021, which
seeks to reduce public tension while expanding enforcement outside the legal
arena. The impact of these new restrictions remains to be seen, but it is
likely that they will disproportionally affect economically marginalized women
due to the additional financial burdens they will impose.
However,
in a context of mass demonstrations, it is difficult to see how the legitimacy
of current regulations can be restored, let alone new ones added. The movement
of ‘women, life, freedom’ has demonstrated the unifying power and potential of
women’s rights as lever for mobilization and demands for change. This has made
the quest for such rights an essential part of any pathway towards fundamental
change. Over forty years ago, women’s rights defenders failed to gain the
support of political parties in their protests against the imposition of the
compulsory hijab. Today’s Iranian women that are determined to change the
social norms imposed by legislation dating back to 1979 enjoy far broader
social support. Recent events show how they have become active agents in
pursuit of their rights, and seek to drive change even in the absence of a
political transformation.
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