I never stopped to think about how I took the feeling of wind blowing through my hair for granted. It was not until after seeing the brave Iranian women fighting to reclaim the rights to their body and defiantly take off their hijab that I realized how much I had taken this freedom of choice for granted.
In the recent wave of protests that broke out in Iran at the end of December, Vida Movahed, a brave demonstrator whose iconic image became one of the symbols of protest for women’s rights when she stood in front of the police in Tehran, swinging her headdress on a stick and facing oncoming traffic and a large group of supporters. Vida was thought to be missing for days and was later discovered that she was arrested by the regime.
Vida has since then been released however, authorities in Iran have arrested nearly 30 other women who were waving their compulsory veils on sticks in what has evolved into a national movement against forced hijab.
Contrary to today in Iran where the hijab is forcefully implemented by law and removal of the hijab in public is punishable with fines or even jail time in January 1936, pro-western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi issued a decree known as Kashf-e hijab, banning all Islamic veils (including headscarf and chador), an edict that was swiftly and forcefully implemented. The government also banned many types of male traditional clothing with the intention of modernizing Iran. As a result, removing women’s hijabs by force had become part of routine duties of the Iranian police. While the banning of the hijab was a relief for most woman, some women of religious observance who chose to wear the hijab felt this law violated their freedom.
Today women in Iran are fighting to reclaim the rights to their body, and regain the freedom of choice regarding wearing the hijab. The movement of women who fought against forced hijab began in the summer of 2012. A group of Iranian students launched a campaign on Facebook under the slogan: "Veil in election is the right of the Iranian woman." Thousands of women from Iran and abroad joined the campaign to demand that women in Iran decide whether they want to wear a veil.
In May 2014, the campaign against the imposition of a veil was renewed at the initiative of an Iranian-in-exile, Massih Allinjad, an Iranian activist and Founder of “My Stealthy Freedom” when she called on Iranian women to document themselves without the hijab. Massih expressed the protests intention is “fighting for freedom to choose to wear or not wear hijab,” she said. “Our fight is against compulsion. Our fight is for freedom of choice.” Thousands of Iranian women from all over the country have uploaded photographs documenting themselves in the public sphere, without the hijab, in defiance of the Islamic dress code.
Today a number of women in several public places in Tehran and Esfahan have staged an act of courageous public defiance. Many of them arrested. The protest of Iranian women is no longer restricted to social media. The demonstrations have erupted into the streets against the will and the wrath of the regime.
As an Iranian woman, or rather as a human being, their battle is my battle.