Fighting the hijab
The protests that spread like wildfire across Iran in protest against the strict Islamic dress code were the biggest since the “green movement” protests that rocked the country after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
THE DEATH OF A YOUNG WOMAN IN POLICE custody on September 16 sparked a chain of anti-government protests across Iran. Mahsa Amini, 22, who was of Kurdish origin and hailed from the north-western province of Kurdistan, was on a visit to the capital Tehran. She was arrested by Iran’s morality police, known as the “Gasht-e-ashab”, on charges of being “immodestly dressed”. She died, after being in a coma for three days in hospital. Videos of her being assaulted and manhandled before being bundled into a police car went viral.
Iran’s morality police was created 15 years ago and includes women in its ranks. Its personnel patrol the streets of big cities in white vans with green stripes. Usually people violating the dress code are let off with a warning. A few, like Amini, are arrested for what the authorities term as “bad hijab”. The activities of the morality police have apparently increased noticeably after President Ebrahim Raisi came to power in 2021. The charge against Amini was that she was wearing “tight trousers” and that her headscarf was “improperly” worn.
She was sent to a “guidance centre” where women are counselled on the rules governing women’s clothing and released after a few days. The authorities claimed that she died of a heart attack and provided video footage to bolster their claims.
Immediately after Amini’s death, President Raisi called up her family. “Your daughter is like my own daughter, and I feel that this incident happened to one of my loved ones,” he told her parents over telephone. He also promised a full-fledged inquiry into the circumstances of her death.
Many Iranians, especially those opposed to the current conservative government, refused to believe the 22year-old died of a heart attack. Tehran’s police chief, Hossein Rahimi, claimed that Amini had several pre
during a protest outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul on September 21 following the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran.
existing conditions like diabetes and epilepsy. He vehemently denied allegations of mistreatment, saying that they were “completely false”. Amini’s parents, however, insisted that she had no health problems and alleged that their daughter’s death was caused by the inhumane treatment meted out to her. Her father said there were bruises on her legs. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi denied the family’s claim and insisted that Amini was not beaten. “Witnesses were interviewed, videos were reviewed, forensic opinions were obtained, and it was found that there was no beating,” he told the Iranian media.
HIJAB LAW AND MORALITY POLICE
Many Iranians, especially in urban areas, have long abhorred the dress code and in recent years, Iranian women in large numbers have started flouting the hijab rules. In the past, women who protested against the dress code were dealt with even more sternly and even faced prison terms.
The first big protest march by women after Amini’s death happened in Tehran. According to reports, it was the biggest demonstration against the dress code since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. During the initial days of the protests, some women took the daring step of burning their headscarves in full view of the authorities and some even cut off their hair in front of television cameras.
Iran’s dress code, derived from a strict interpretation of the Quran, remains a core belief of the theocratic state that came into being after the overthrow of the authoritarian Western-backed Pahlavi regime. Soon after the triumph of the Islamic revolution in 1979, wearing of the
hijab and a loose-fitting dress covering the hands and the legs of women in public was made mandatory. There is, however, no single rule book on how women should dress and Iran’s dress code has anyway never been as rigorous as Saudi Arabia’s or Afghanistan’s under the Taliban. In the more cosmopolitan parts of Tehran, women can be seen with their heads barely covered and with fashionable jeans and trousers clearly visible.
BIGGEST SINCE ‘GREEN MOVEMENT’
The protests this time, sparked by the hijab issue, were the biggest since the “green movement” protests that rocked the country after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President in 2009 or even the 2019 protests when the government announced an increase in petrol prices. The latter gained traction after a woman bystander was killed during a rally.
In all the protests that have taken place in the last two decades, economic and political issues predominated. The 2009 protests were the most serious, as the clerical establishment was seemingly poised for a split. Many prominent personalities in the so-called moderate camp raised their voice against the conduct of the election and the role of the religious hierarchy. They were mainly followers of Mohammed Khatami, who was President before Ahmadinejad took over. However, the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy was never questioned by the “green movement”. And the hijab did not figure in those protests.
This is the first time that the question of the hijab took centre stage. The economic travails that ordinary Iranians are facing, including rampant unemployment and high inflation, mainly as a result of the draconian sanctions imposed by the West, have added fuel to the fire. Along with slogans demanding the removal of the hijab rule, there were vociferous calls for regime change.
THE KURDISTAN FACTOR
The protests were particularly vociferous, even violent, in Kurdistan, Amini’s home province. The Kurds in the region have at various times in the past 70 years, most often with help from the CIA, staged insurrections against the government in Tehran. The Kurdish homeland that parties like the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) lay claim to comprises huge swathes of land in Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Amini’s funeral in Saqqez in Kurdistan province drew a big crowd of mourners. Protests broke out in the province soon after, and spread to other parts of the country. Kurds constitute around 10 per cent of Iran’s population.
For decades, Kurdish activists have fought for greater political and cultural rights. On September 23, protests rocked Iran’s West Azerbaijan province. The Iranian government accused the Kurdish left-wing party known as Komala of being behind the violence. Iran calls the Komala, which is fighting for an independent Kurdish state, a “terrorist” group. In retaliation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps shelled Komala guerilla bases in northern Iraq, claiming that the group had tried to smuggle in “armed teams and high volumes of weapons” by taking advantage of the current unrest.
STUDENTS ON THE STREETS
Much of the support for the hijab protests came from university students chanting slogans like “Death to the Dictator” and the Kurdish slogan, “Women, Life, Freedom”. This time around the protests focussed on woman’s rights, with famous Iranian sports, cinema and theatre personalities, including legendary Iranian footballer Ali Karami and famous actor Pantea Bahram, speaking up.
The Union of Islamic Iran People’s Party, a reformist party formed by supporters of the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, has called for the scrapping of the hijab law.
By the end of September, Iranian state media reported that more than 41 people, including members of the police and the paramilitary Basij force, had been killed in the violence. There has been large-scale destruction of public property. Many government offices were burnt down, mainly in Kurdistan, and more than 730 protesters, including 60 women, were arrested in the province of Gilan alone. State media described the protesters as “rioters”.
COUNTER RALLIES
President Raisi said that he had ordered the police and the security agencies to “decisively confront” those who
“oppose the country’s security and tranquillity”. Access to Internet channels like Whatsapp and Instagram were severely restricted after the protests started spreading.
Meanwhile, the government urged its supporters to stage counter rallies. In the last week of September, two pro-hijab rallies were taken out in Tehran, Isfahan, Ahwaz, Shiraz, Qom, and Tabriz after Friday prayers and on Sunday. The rallyists raised slogans condemning the anti-government protesters as “agents of Israel”. They chanted that the “offenders of the Quran will be executed”.
The last thing the Iranian government wants at this juncture is internal unrest. But the hijab protests are not expected to last long as there is no real unity or leadership among those who have taken to the streets. Some of the protesters want the hijab law to be lifted while others only want the dissolution of the morality police. A minority among the protesters have made the demand for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. It is this call that seems to have angered the authorities.
AMERICAN ANGLE
The hijab protests have come at a time when Iranians are hoping for the revival of the nuclear deal with the US, which could go a long way in reviving the economy. However, the Biden administration has demanded more concessions. Western nations have used the hijab protests to pile up diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government. Biden in his speech to the UN General Assembly said he stood in solidarity with “the brave citizens and brave women who are now demanding to secure their basic rights”.
During the 2009 protests, the Obama administration was careful not to antagonise the Iranian government as secret negotiations were going on for the signing of the nuclear deal. Biden was Vice President in that administration. But Biden, unlike Obama, has been very loud in his support of the demonstrators this time. It may be an indication that the nuclear deal might might not be revived after all.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, has criticised American support for the protesters. “Peaceful protest is the right of every nation. However, US involvement in Iran’s affairs and support for ‘rioters’ in implementing their destabilisation project is in clear conflict with Washington’s diplomatic message to Iran regarding the necessity of a nuclear deal and establishing stability in the region,” he said.
US FACILITATES INTERNET ACCESS
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has permitted American tech billionaire Elon Musk to activate his “Starlink” Internet constellation operated by Spacex so that Iranians can get unrestricted access to the Net. The US State Department described the move as a relaxation of American sanctions to help the Iranian people. The economic sanctions, which have caused widespread hardships among ordinary Iranian citizens, however remain in place.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the move was “a violation of Iranian sovereignty”, while legal experts claim it is a violation of international telecom laws for companies to offer their services without the consent of the governments concerned.
At any rate, for Starlink to work in Iran, thousands of terminals worth millions of dollars will have to be smuggled in. The Starlink-powered Internet, which started operating in Ukraine soon after the conflict began there , is said to be working effectively, with Kyiv allowing in more than 15,000 terminals.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the Iranian government should realise that the people “are unhappy with the direction they have taken”. The European Union, along with human rights groups, called for an independent investigation into the Iranian state’s handling of the protests. And in Paris, London, Athens and Oslo, Iranian embassies were attacked by protesters in solidarity with those demonstrating in Iran. m
By end September, Iranian state media reported that more than 41 people had been killed in the violence. More than 730 protesters, including 60 women, were arrested in the province of Gilan alone.