WOMAN. LIFE. FREEDOM.
An Iranian-American in Pittsburgh reflects on the meaning of her home country’s feminist revolution
In Iran, like many other countries, when a child reaches the age of six, it is time to attend school. But if a child is a girl, she must start wearing a headscarf. That’s when the government’s indoctrination really begins.
Now, the women who were those schoolgirls are rising up against this oppression. The revolution-in-making demands a regime change to secure a society where not only bodily autonomy, but all forms of freedom are guaranteed. It’s a movement, led by women expressing their desire for liberty and opportunity, that manifests the new order it desires to bring about.
“Woman. Life. Freedom.” That’s the chant echoing in the streets of Tehran and in cities around the world. Including Pittsburgh.
While I cherish many of my childhood memories in Iran, the image of police arresting my mother right in front of our house, leaving me and my siblings at home with no supervision, has forever been engrained in my brain. My parents, and especially my father, were political activists in the 1980s, and were detained and interrogated on numerous occasions.
Growing up with parents who strived for freedom and justice, politics was a huge part of my upbringing. I moved to the U.S. in 2010, and after I graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, I moved to Pittsburgh to attend law school.
Many members of the IranianAmerican community who chose Pittsburgh as their home have similar stories. Many came to attend school and decided to stay, or came in search of a job and nested here to secure a better future for their children.
We are all in awe of how brave young Iranians are, and holding our breath for the rebirth of our country after this revolution. We dream of a country where our resources and talents will be in the service of building a society for everyone, instead of serving an ideology.
As I write this, young girls in high schools are chasing government officials out of their schools while chanting “Woman. Life. Freedom.” They refuse to be silenced, and are burning their scarves, cutting their hair, taking off their hijab and defying the morality police to fight for their freedom. Their bravery, awareness and political will, even at the cost of their lives, brings tears of joy and admiration to my eyes. They are rays of hope for not just Iran, but for the entire world.
Girls’ school uniforms in Iran consist of a long dress over the knees, pants and a head cover. Though schools are not co-ed until college, girls are still required to wear their head covering at all times during school. Once they are teenagers, they are also required to fully cover themselves in the public. The head covering, known as hijab, is used as one of the tools to instill obedience in women from a young age, and to never let them dream of bodily autonomy.
Making hijab mandatory was one of the first regressive “reforms” proposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini when he rose to power in 1979. But thousands of women came to the streets to protest it, temporarily forestalling the plan.
But in July of 1980, women were required to wear hijab when entering any government building. This was the wedge that opened the door to full-scale repression. Soon, those who worked in the government either had to comply or risk losing their jobs. And two years
later, the regime began compelling women to wear hijab at all times in public.
A violation could result in fines, imprisonment or even flogging. In the last four decades, the morality police have stopped and arrested women for wearing colorful outfits, short dresses over pants, not fully covering their hair, wearing tight clothing or even wearing winter boots.
The most important protest – until last month’s uprising – to the mandatory hijab did not happen until 2017, when Vida Movahed stood on a utility box in Revolution Street and hung her white scarf from a stick in silence. Several men and women joined her, and some are still in prison to this day. Until this year, about 25 people had been prosecuted for breaking the hijab law or protesting it, and a total of 92 years and six months of imprisonment have been levied.
On September 16th of this year, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, was stopped by the morality police for not wearing her headscarf properly. According to the testimony of other women arrested at the same time, Mahsa had objected to her arrest and insisted that the police should release her. The police responded by severely beating her. She slipped into a coma, and died.
Mahsa’s tragic death has led to the first feminist revolution of its kind in the world, one that demands the protection of women’s right to bodily autonomy, but also all human rights, for women and for all. Iranian women do not only protest mandatory hijab, but demand the restoration of their rights to work, to study, to divorce, to custody and beyond, all of which have been taken away by the current regime.
The government mandated hijab is the starting point of this fight, not only because it is the most visible symbol of women’s oppression, but because Iranian women know if women’s bodily autonomy is recognized, it paves the path for the recognition of other rights. When governments stop regulating women’s hair, breasts and wombs, only then women will have full agency over their own lives.
According to local sources, at least 130 protesters have been killed by the regime on the streets of Iran. Protests have flared in more than a hundred cities and towns within Iran, and in over hundred and fifty cities around the world – including Pittsburgh, where about 300 Iranian-American participated last week on Grant Street and at the City-County Building.
Those of us who reside in the United States are not the exceptions. Resilience, awareness and yearning for freedom are common attributes of all Iranians, especially Iranian women. Last Saturday, we came together in solidarity with the Iranian people and to be their voice to the world, especially when the Iranian government consistently tries to cut off their access to the internet.
Theyoung women demonstrating in Iran tear the stereotypical image of a woman from the Middle East into thousands of pieces. They know to live freely and to pursue a fulfilled life is not possible until all groups in a society are liberated. When the human rights of the most marginalized groups are protected, everyone’s freedom is guaranteed.
As the people in Iran chant, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” they are spreading hope all over the Middle East and the world, and even in the United States. Women’s rights and bodily autonomy must not be not up for debate, or used a tool to gather vote. Any society that still sees women’s rights as a political bargaining chip doesn’t consider women to be full citizens with equal rights.
This is not a revolution just to topple a dictatorial regime: It is a revolution that represents and brings into being the new and better world that is to come. It shows that a better world is possible. And the more the ayatollahs suppress our voices, the stronger we get.