Turban warfare
Teens ‘knock’ Iran hijab law
Young Iranians are knocking turbans off clerics’ heads to protest the country’s hijab mandate.
In one viral video of the trend, a young woman is seen running up to a man in a traditional robe from behind and delivering a powerful blow to the back of his white turban, sending it to the ground.
The woman then runs away, while the Muslim clergyman stoops to pick up his headdress.
“Removing the turbans of clerics has turned into an act of protest after regime killed hundreds of innocent protesters,” the caption of the video read.
Another recording from the holy city of Mashhad shows a cleric walking over to pick up his unraveled turban, which had been yanked off his head. A crowd of teens cheers in the background.
Iran’s youngsters have turned to what has been described tongue-incheek as a “game of ‘knock the turban off a cleric’ ” after seven weeks of violent demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini died in mid-September three days after being picked up by the morality police for wearing her hijab loosely in violation of the strictly enforced Islamic dress code. Women in Iran are required to keep their hair completely covered by headscarves and wear loose-fitting clothing.
While Iranian authorities have claimed that Amini died from a heart attack and denied any wrongdoing, her family says she had no history of cardiovascular problems and they were barred from seeing her body before she was buried.
Amini’s death ignited rare displays of defiance from Iran’s high school and college students, with women removing — and sometimes burning — their headscarves in public and cutting off their hair in shows of protest.
The Basij, volunteers in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and police forces have responded to demonstrations against the country’s theocratic regime by allegedly beating protesters and deploying tear gas to disperse rioters.
Unconfirmed reports have suggested that hundreds of protesters have been killed during the unrest, which has seen schoolgirls and young men chanting “Death to the dictator” and tearing up pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, despite the risk of being imprisoned.