One Year after Mahsa Amini, Iran’s Women Are Defying Mandatory Hijab Laws
New
Age Islam News Bureau
15 February 2024
·
One Year after
Mahsa Amini, Iran’s Women Are Defying Mandatory Hijab Laws
·
Kabiri Hassani,
an Afghan Journalist Gets Two Years In Prison For Crossing Russian Border
Illegally
·
Women
Rights Activists Demand Gender Equality At Doha Conference On Afghanistan
·
Thirteen,
Including Five Women, Flogged In Central Afghanistan
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mahsa-amini-iran-hijab/d/131726
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One Year After Mahsa Amini, Iran’s Women Are Defying
Mandatory Hijab Laws
Dr. Fatemeh Rajaei-Rad
accepts an award in Iran in Oct. 2024. (Screenshot / @dw_persian)
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2/14/2024
TARA JAMALI
The room thunders with applause as her name is
announced over the loudspeaker.
Onlookers cheer her on as she approaches the stage to
receive her award for “Distinguished Doctor.” The awe in the room is palpable
as her accomplishments in the medical field flash on a projector screen. It
turns out she is also a seasoned mountaineer, which elicits whistles from the
crowd. In her sleek sky-blue pantsuit and heels, FatemehRajaei-Rad looks as
distinguished as her newly bequeathed title indicates.
But it was her multi-hued scarf that attracted the
most attention during the awards ceremony on October 24. All because she had
wrapped it around her neck instead of on her hair.
In Iran, where Dr. Rajaei-Rad lives, hijab laws
mandate women to cover their hair in public. “Improper veiling” can have harsh
consequences if one runs into the so-called morality police. Last year,
22-year-old Mahsa Amini fell victim to them for allegedly violating the dress
code and died while in custody under suspicious circumstances.
Her death sparked a nationwide uprising in which
thousands of women took to the streets to protest longstanding inequality.
Their rallying call, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” struck a chord worldwide.
Now, more than a year later, women are defying
compulsory hijab on an unprecedented level, most often at significant risk to
their lives and livelihoods. Dr. Rajaei-Rad is one of them.
The footage of her receiving the award with her hair
uncovered went viral, and two days after the ceremony, her medical license was
revoked. The authorities did not leave it at that. They summoned the event
planners to a correction facility for interrogation and ousted the president of
Imam Khomeini Hospital in Amol, where Dr. Rajaei-Rad was employed.
The repercussions reached a point where the young
doctor was compelled to make a public apology, fully covered this time, for
“having offended anyone.” Whether she has succeeded in reclaiming her license
remains unclear.
Think about it: a girl who spends years studying and
working hard to get into medical school finally achieves her dream and succeeds
in her field to earn the title of “Distinguished Doctor,” only to be stripped
of her credentials.
For showing her hair.
It was far from an isolated case. Earlier that month
in Tehran, teenager Armita Geravand was embarking on the metro on her way to
school when two female police guards started harassing her. Like Rajaei-Rad,
she had appeared without a headscarf. An altercation ensued, which led to
Geravand sustaining head trauma, losing consciousness and falling into a coma.
Pronounced brain-dead on Oct. 22 after being held in an intensive care unit for
several weeks, she died on Oct. 28.
Such incidents have driven Iranian women to protest
the hijab laws by appearing in public with their hair uncovered and engaging in
symbolic acts such as setting headscarves on fire. Blossoms of bravery are
sprouting across the land on an unprecedented scale. Yet, like Rajaei-Rad, they
are all too often cut off at the stem before reaching full bloom.
Her story hits close to me, because her hometown of
Amol is also where my mother is from. It was where I attended a private high
school with gifted students from prominent families. Many of my classmates
aspired to pursue medical careers, meaning they had to enter the rigorous
natural sciences track as sophomores. It also felt like the right track for me,
and I even succeeded in becoming valedictorian one year. However, as graduation
came and went, I had lingering doubts about the direction I was headed. As
bright as the prospects were, something about the overarching context felt off.
It was as if I could sense the cognitive dissonance of
being a high-achieving female doctor subject to archaic rules and regulations
in our society. One of my former classmates is now an eminent pediatrician in
Amol. Despite having a strong social media presence, she sports a covering in
all her photos—because regardless of how she feels about the hijab, to do
otherwise would put her career at risk. Another friend and classmate immigrated
to the U.S. after completing her studies in Iran and now enjoys a successful
career in pharmacy on the West Coast. I am aware she traveled to Iran last year
to attend her father’s funeral. As she is married to a fellow Iranian, she will
have needed her husband’s legal permission to leave the country upon returning
to the U.S.
It seemed that everywhere I went, women were openly
defying the dress code by refusing to wear headscarves—on the street, in
stores, in cafes, on public transportation, in the mountains, by the sea, while
driving.
When I was living in Iran at the time, it was almost
unthinkable for women to demonstrate resistance against compulsory hijab for
fear of retribution. But today, 44 years after living under a theocratic regime
bent on classifying them as second-class citizens, they are finally saying
enough is enough.
In the words of Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned Iranian
human rights activist and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, “The image
that the tyrannical government portrays of the Iranian people and society does
not match the lively, dynamic, tolerant and considerate culture of the Iranian
people and society.”
Evidence of the feminist movement was palpable during
my recent stay in Iran. It seemed that everywhere I went, women were openly
defying the dress code by refusing to wear headscarves—on the street, in
stores, in cafes, on public transportation, in the mountains, by the sea, while
driving. Almost as many women were going about with their hair uncovered as
those who opted for veiling. Everyone seemed okay with the arrangement and
respectful of one another’s choices, including the men. It reflected how the
populace—religious or secular, male or female—opposed not the hijab per se, but
the eradication of choice.
As the movement gained momentum, the authorities
started unleashing their counterattacks. Billboards and posters popped up
around town with slogans extolling the virtues of chastity or promoting veiling
as a religious mandate. Police and volunteers would issue verbal warnings in
subways, airports, and other public spaces. On at least several occasions as I
was walking around town—especially in the late afternoons and evenings when
more people were out and about—hordes of female officers, all in a single file
and covered in black from head to toe, would call out women passersby for
dressing immodestly. They reprimanded me once for wearing a skirt that revealed
my ankles. The next day, I stood in front of a hijab poster close to where the
incident had occurred with my hair uncovered, took a selfie, and posted it on
my Instagram page in a small act of vengeance.
It seemed like the more they engaged in civil
disobedience, the more the authorities implemented every tactic in the book to
instill fear and make it clear that compulsory hijab was alive and well.
Businesses serving women not wearing the hijab were
targeted. One day, I heard that a high-end pastry shop in a neighboring city
was shut down for its leniency towards women’s dress codes. While on a spring
trip with a tour group to the ancient city of Kashan for its annual rose water
festival, I couldn’t help noticing the signs on almost every entrance to
hotels, restaurants and historical sites emphasizing that the observance of
hijab in these places was mandatory. Granted, most of the staff could not care
less, and almost half the female visitors flouted the laws.
Women caught without a hijab while driving were at
risk of having their vehicles impounded. I’d hear all the time from my female
friends and relatives that they or someone they knew had received text messages
informing them that because of improper hijab, they could not drive their cars
for a designated period: the first time they were caught, the driving ban would
be for fifteen days, and the second time for six months. Surveillance cameras
installed in various overhead locations on roadways were used to identify
“violators.” I remember driving through the main boulevard in town once when my
headscarf fell to my shoulders. A girl passing by in the next lane rolled down
her window and called out to me that a security camera was ahead. It wasn’t
uncommon for women to watch out for one another in those circumstances.
Still, it seemed like the more they engaged in civil
disobedience, the more the authorities implemented every tactic in the book to
instill fear and make it clear that compulsory hijab was alive and well.
They haven’t stopped targeting Dr. Rajaei-Rad either.
A month after revoking her medical license and ousting the president of her
workplace, authorities shut down her private practice and expelled her from the
board of advisors at a medical university she had been a member of. To add
insult to injury, the Supreme Leader’s representative in Amol publicly
announced that from then onward, she should wear a chador (a full-length
covering for women, leaving only the face visible.)
Seeing what could happen to a female doctor who didn’t
play by the book in this environment makes me feel justified in my decision to
change the direction I was headed years ago. A lucrative income, prestigious
job title, societal recognition and all the perks that come with being in a
particular field can never provide a rationale for blatant violations of the
rights and freedoms of women within that field.
Mandatory veiling may be the law of the land, but at
the heart of the women’s movement in Iran lies the confidence that rules are
made to be rewritten. Flames of the feminist revolution have been fanned.
As feminist icon and Ms. founding editor Gloria
Steinem affirms, “Using our voices, protesting with our bodies, supporting
other women is what the revolution is all about.”
Source: msmagazine.com
https://msmagazine.com/2024/02/14/iran-women-mandatory-hijab-laws/
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Kabiri Hassani, an Afghan Journalist Gets Two Years In
Prison For Crossing Russian Border Illegally
Afghan journalist Kabiri Hassani
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Fidel Rahmati
February 14, 2024
The Saint Petersburg city court has given Afghan
journalist KabiriHassani a two-year prison sentence for crossing the border
from Russia to Europe illegally.
On Tuesday, February 13th, the Saint Petersburg court
announced that KabiriHassani, an Afghan journalist, and his colleagues had been
sentenced to two years in prison for illegally crossing the Russian border into
Europe.
Reports indicate that the Afghan journalist enrolled
in an English language program at a university in Kyiv after fleeing
Afghanistan but decided to head to Europe following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Hassani and her associates were arrested in Saint
Petersburg about two years ago and were sentenced to four years in prison.
Before the overthrow of the republic government in
Afghanistan in 2021, Hassani worked for Afghan national television but now
faces forced expulsion from Russia under threat.
It is worth mentioning that the Russian Ministry of
Interior’s refugee department has rejected Hassani’s asylum application.
Russia’s TASS news agency also confirmed reports of
KabiriHassani’s conviction, stating that a court in Saint Petersburg has fined
Ms. Hassani 5,000 rubles for violating Russian Federation entry and residency
laws, along with mandatory deportation from the country.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-journalist-gets-two-years-in-prison-for-crossing-russian-border-illegally/
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Women Rights ActivistsDemand Gender Equality At Doha
Conference On Afghanistan
Fidel Rahmati
February 15, 2024
Women’s rights activists assert that Afghanistan’s
current state stems from the Doha Agreement, which overlooked the need for
gender equality. They insist that the upcoming United Nations meeting on
Afghanistan must implement measures to avoid repeating this detrimental
oversight.
The second Doha meeting is set to take place on
February 18th and 19th, initiated by the United Nations in Doha, the capital of
Qatar. Criticisms of holding this meeting have peaked for various reasons, and
it is expected that there will be demonstrations by human rights defenders to
oppose the convening of this meeting.
Taranum Saeedi, leader of Afghan women’s
participation, linked the agenda of the second special United Nations meeting
for Afghanistan to her discussions with the press, saying that women and girls
had expected confirmation of their fundamental rights and gender equality in
Afghanistan’s future at the Doha meeting in 2021, which was held to discuss the
future of Afghanistan.
According to Saeedi, Afghanistan has experienced
significant changes in recent years, and the political and social conditions in
the country are complex. However, achieving fundamental rights and gender
equality in Afghanistan requires further and continuous efforts from both the
international and domestic communities.
She adds, “The Taliban not only did not commit to any
of the conditions stipulated in the Doha Agreement, but upon their entry into
Afghanistan, their entire effort has been to completely exclude women and girls
from society. Based on this, they issued more than 52 written orders and dozens
of unwritten orders to deprive women and girls of all their rights and freedoms
and impose various restrictions on them.”
The second Doha meeting is expected to be held in the
presence of representatives of specific countries for Afghanistan and
representatives of international organizations, on February 18th and 19th, with
the participation of a representative from the Taliban in Doha.
Meanwhile, Saeedi criticized the fact that in the past
two years, meetings and conferences on Afghanistan have had no fundamental
impact on gender equality and support for human rights, emphasizing that the
United Nations should strive to ensure the vulnerable segment of society (women
and girls) in education, health, promotion of gender equality culture, and
strengthening supportive institutions.
Sara Wahidi, an influential youth from Afghanistan,
also considered the exclusion of women and youth from the Doha peace talks in
2020 as contributing to the current crisis in human rights, especially women’s
rights, and warned of the consequences of the Taliban’s extremist policies
towards women in Afghanistan.
Recently listed in Forbes magazine’s under-30
influential youth, she added through a post on her social media account that
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are
deprived of the right to education.
According to Wahidi, the exclusion of women from the
Doha peace talks has led to a blatant violation of their fundamental rights in
Afghanistan.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/women-demand-gender-equality-at-doha-conference-on-afghanistan/
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Thirteen, Including Five Women, Flogged In Central
Afghanistan
Fidel Rahmati
February 15, 2024
The Taliban’s High Court has stated that 13
individuals, including five women, in Bamyan province have been sentenced to
flogging.
According to the court’s announcement, these
individuals were flogged on Wednesday, February 14th, in the centre of Bamyan.
Sources indicate that the flogging sentences for these
individuals were executed by the primary court’s judicial department in Bamyan
after confirmation by the appellate court of this province.
As per the announcement, five of these individuals
were sentenced to two years of imprisonment and 39 lashes each for extramarital
relations, while four others were convicted of fleeing home, each sentenced to
one year of imprisonment and 39 lashes.
Two individuals were also sentenced to seven years of
imprisonment and 39 lashes each for murder and motorbike theft.
The Taliban’s High Court has stated that two others
were sentenced to one year of imprisonment and 30 lashes each for “illicit
relations.”
This news has sparked widespread debate and concern
over the enforcement of such punishments in Bamyan province.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/thirteen-including-five-women-flogged-in-central-afghanistan/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mahsa-amini-iran-hijab/d/131726