Sweden’s headscarf-wearing ‘feminist’ leaders criticised

AT THE weekend, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven led a Swedish delegation to Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted positively about his meeting with Löfven.

Back home, Sweden’s media noted a number of female officials, including Trade Minister Ann Linde, had chosen to wear Islamic headscarves while in Iran.

According to Expressen newspaper, there were 11 women on the trip out of 15 in total in the Swedish delegation. They were photographed wearing headscarves “almost all of the time”.

By law, women are required to cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothes when they appear in public in Iran. These rules require international visitors to dress modestly even if they are only in the country for a short time.

Löfven’s Swedish government describes itself as a “feminist government” and it has spoken of the need for a “feminist” foreign policy. Hillel Neuer, executive director of human rights group and frequent Iran critic UN Watch, noted this apparent contradiction in a tweet shared on Sunday night. “Walk of shame: Women of Sweden’s ‘first feminist government in the world’ don hijab as they walk past Iran’s Rouhani.”

Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who started a Facebook page that invited Iranian women to share photographs of themselves without a hijab, also criticised the Swedish delegation.

“By actually complying with the directives of the Islamic Republic, Western women legitimise the compulsory hijab law,” Alinejad wrote. “This is a discriminatory law and it’s not an internal matter when the Islamic Republic forces all non-Iranian women to wear hijab as well.” – The Washington Post