Written by Raihana Sultana (Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka)
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the western city of Saqqez in Iran’s Kurdistan province, died on September 16, 2022, converting an ordinarily pleasant day in Tehran into a tragic event. According to her relatives and spectators, she was detained three days before she passed away for “improperly” wearing her hijab. The protests that followed Amini’s death in detention three days after her arrest in Tehran posed the toughest challenge to Iran’s authorities in living history for the sake of their human rights.
Iran’s coroner has concluded that Mahsa Amini’s death while in the care of Iran’s “morality police” was not caused by being hit but rather by an underlying disease. Protesters in Iran who have marched since her death on September 16 are certain to disagree with this conclusion.According to an official medical assessment released by Iran’s Forensic Organization on Friday, “Mahsa Amini’s death was not caused by assaults to the brain and essential organs and limbs of the body.” As opposed to this, cerebral hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen to the brain, was blamed for the 22-year- old’s death, according to the official news agency IRNA.
The power of Amini’s death, however, was not the only reason for the sudden outrage in Iran. The imposition of strict Islamic law, lack of freedom of expression, violations of women’s rights, continuing economic crisis led to the mass protests all over Iran.
The Iranian authorities have been attempting to enforce the hijab and chastity regulations as well as other restrictions on women’s attire throughout the past month. While the new regulation, as per Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpaygani, the head of the headquarters to propagate integrity, will reduce the penalty for not wearing the correct hijab from a crime to a fine, women who publish images of themselves online without the hijab risk facing severe penalties. For instance, female government employees must comply with rules requiring the wearing of the hijab by having profile pictures. Otherwise, they risk being fired. These modifications come as Iranian authorities
redouble their efforts to suppress women’s efforts to oppose the country’s headscarf rules and women’s rights activists.
Several videos that show security personnel or other individuals abusing women who disobey hijab laws have been widely shared on social media in recent months.
One shows an argument between two ladies about what looks to be one of the women trying to coerce the other to wear a headscarf. Authorities detained Sepide Rashno on July 16 as a result of the publishing of the video because she had disobeyed legislation requiring women to wear the hijab. On July 30, Rashno made an apology to the other woman on State TV while sporting a pale and sickly appearance. Rashno was reportedly rushed to the hospital for internal bleeding before making his public confession, according to HRA. Iranian officials frequently force inmates to make fictitious television confessions.
Hundreds of thousands of Instagram users have posted images of themselves saying, “Join us in unity: We oppose obligatory hijab,” in response to the authorities’ incarceration of Rashno and other women due to their clothing choices.
The mandatory hijab laws have come under fire amid the upheaval as a number of sportswomen playing abroad have been spotted competing without their headscarves in public.
Sara Khadem, an Iranian player born in 1997, participated in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 28th December, 2022 in Almaty without wearing the hijab, which is required by Iran’s stringent dress restrictions.
Due to the sensitivity of the situation, the source, who wished to remain anonymous, said Khadem thereafter received several phone calls, some of which warned her not to go back home after the competition and others of which encouraged her to do so while promising to “fix her problem.” Without providing more information, the insider added that Khadem’s parents and relatives in Iran had also received threats. Later, four bodyguards were posted near Khadem’s hotel room as a result of the decision to provide security made by the organizers in response to the phone calls, according to the source. The mandatory hijab laws have come under fire amid the upheaval as a number of sportswomen playing abroad have been spotted competing without their headscarves in public.
The new crackdown on women’s attire stands in sharp contrast to the Iranian government’s failure to address important concerns like domestic violence and the rise in femicides. The draft law on “Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women Against Violence” has not yet been adopted by the Iranian parliament.
The aim of the administration is to stop the demonstrators from coordinating and uniting around a single leader. Iran chooses to rely on the Basij to police domestic order against demonstrators because, historically, certain professional militaries have ignored instructions to attack their own people (for instance, during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt and the Iranian Revolution itself). Iran still has the technological capabilities to shut down telephone and Internet services, thanks to assistance from China and Russia. The government tries to track and
identify demonstrators using their phones’ GPS if they bring them and forget to turn off tracking. Ambulances are purportedly used by Iran as covert vehicles to carry security personnel and kidnap demonstrators. According to CNN interviewees, Iran has employed methods like coercing confessions, threatening unrelated family members, and torturing people with electric shocks, simulated drowning, and theatrical executions.
These demonstrations support women’s liberation and the overthrow of a brutal regime, in addition to being against the hijab’s requirement. The morality police’s attempt to instill fear in women by what they did to Mahsa Amini had the reverse effect, igniting a movement for equality and women’s rights that had been simmering in Iran. Anger and rage erupted as a result. According to Aarabi of the Tony Blair Institute in the UK, “Women have previously been on the frontlines of protests in Iran.” But this isn’t about reform; it’s about a complete transformation of the
government. Because the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab is more than simply a simple piece of clothing. It’s one of the fundamental tenets of this regime’s worldview.
Reuters reported on December 23, 2022, that Iran’s religious officials were “trying to depict the upheaval as secessionist uprisings by ethnic minority endangering national integration rather than its clerical control,” as they were experiencing their worst legitimacy challenge since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Activists and rights organizations claim that cooperation among Iran’s various ethnic communities during the rallies, with protestors chanting in support of minorities, has undercut such government attempts. All types of protesters have flocked to the streets to demand the demise of the Islamic Republic.Reuters reported on December 23, 2022, that Iran’s religious officials were “trying to depict the upheaval as secessionist uprisings by ethnic minority endangering national integration rather than its clerical control,” as they were experiencing their worst legitimacy challenge since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Activists and rights organizations claim that cooperation among Iran’s various ethnic communities during the rallies, with protestors chanting in support of minorities, has undercut such government attempts. All types of protesters have flocked to the streets to demand the demise of the Islamic Republic.
This general concept is the power that men exercise over women by governing their bodies, clothing, and manner of life, together with the battle for equality for women in all sectors of life, and it is something that both men and women are fighting. This dispute, which has been going on for years, is a result of the discriminatory policies that the government passed without consulting women. It also results from the patriarchal, misogynistic concepts that men have propagated, such as the notions that abortion is evil and that divorce cases are typically resolved in men’s favor. Iranians, and Iranian women in particular, have long resisted the regime, and the struggle is still ongoing. This is a fight for women’s rights and physical autonomy; it’s a fight for freedom of choice so that women can choose to wear hijabs without being forced to do so, whether they are in Iran or France.
References
Bahrami, F. (ed.) (2022) Iranian coroner denies Mahsa Amini died from blows to body, aljazeera.com. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/7/iranian-coroner- denies-mahsa-amini-died-from-blows-to-body (Accessed: January 8, 2023).
Elwelly, E. (2023) Iranian chess player was warned not to return to Iran after competing without hijab -source, reuters.com. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle– east/iranian-chess-player-was-warned-not-return-iran-after-competing-without-hijab-2023- 01-03/?fbclid=IwAR2B5zpEYkVdCUF1-GoNng69KxifQq8EueNl3a1WKLl06uScXcT- VbBqYcc (Accessed: January 8, 2023).
McGrath, M. (2022) Mahsa Amini: The Spark That Ignited A Women-Led Revolution, forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2022/12/06/mahsa- amini-the-spark-that-ignited-a-women-led-revolution/?sh=6748a0bb5c3d (Accessed: January 9, 2023).
Roth, K. (ed.) (2022) Iran Events of 2021, Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/world–report/2022/country-chapters/iran (Accessed: January 9, 2023).