Unveiling the hijab : A new way of protest
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
“As long as there are those who remember what was, there will always be those who cannot accept what can be”-Avengers:Endgame
On 16th September 2022, 22 year old Kurdish Iranian woman Masha Amini was allegedly beaten and killed by the morality police, in their custody on the charge of not wearing her hijab properly. The Iranians took it to the streets and started a revolution in Iran likes of which hadn’t been seen there before. “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”-or” Women, Life, Freedom” is their slogan.
For almost hundred days, protests have gripped Iran-which have not only been surprisingly resilient, but also led primarily by women, from all ages and diverse backgrounds, demanding justice and reform for their rights. Women are burning their hijabs and cutting their hair in public, openly defying the regime’s control over them.
The problem is due to the fact the Iranian government mandates wearing hijabs. This is to support the age old patriarchy and men having control over women’s bodies, beautifully hidden under the veil of religion. However this revolution is not to depose the Islamic republic. It is driven by the decades of repression, poor economic policy and extremely limited political opposition which makes it hard to envision a new future for Iran.
“Power resides where men believe it resides”-George R.R Martin
The only reason different holy books or the patriarchal society have power is because we give them the power. Considering an all loving god is out there, don’t you think he would want his children have their own right to choose, instead of being dragged down by these chains of ‘sin’.
People across the world, irrespective of gender, are speaking against this brutality, in the name of moral policing. However, the fact is, in every part of the world, every corner, every street there is moral policing in a different way, done by those same people who are speaking against it.
The defence of these moral police is that they protect the culture and tradition. However the socio-cultural aspect of a country changes with time and only if you adapt can you survive, for Change is the only constant. Can we think of sati system or parda system in today’s India? So for the betterment of society we have to see not from the lens of what was but from the lens of what can be.