February 26, 2023

"I have not worn a scarf for months — I don’t even carry it with me any more. Whether the government likes to admit it or not, the era of the forced hijab is over."

Said Kimia, 23, a graduate student in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, quoted in "Their Hair Long and Flowing or in Ponytails, Women in Iran Flaunt Their Locks/Defiant resistance to Iran’s mandatory hijab law has exploded across the country after nationwide protests that erupted last year" (NYT).
Even many religious women who wear a hijab by choice have joined the campaign to repeal the law.... Maryam, 53, who observes the hijab law and lives in Tehran, recently traveled with her daughter to the holiday island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. They were surprised to find most women wearing short-sleeved sun dresses, sandals, capri pants and T-shirts. “Are we in Turkey or Iran?” asked her daughter, Narges, 26. 
Shortly after the trip, Narges changed all of her social media profile photos to one in which her long brown hair was flowing over her shoulders and her fist was raised in the air... “I will never bring down my fist until freedom, even if we have to wait for many years,” Narges wrote on her Instagram page. 

26 comments:

Gospace said...

Now do masks...

Actually what I thought at first glance. Mandatory face coverings are always about control, never about health.

rhhardin said...

I've never gotten a scarf to work, I mean I always felt better with it off than on.

gilbar said...

do you know why they put their hair in ponytails; instead of pigtails? Of Course you do!

Michael K said...

If only Obama had supported them.

gilbar said...

Persian women are most beautiful women in the world (don't take My word for it; ask Omar Khayyam)
So, it's GREAT that they're putting the 6th century behind them!

Lucien said...

How naive. The imposition of tyranny by religious zealots is never over forever. Only a real revolution including execution of all the Revolutionary Guards and Ayatollahs could even start such a process.

Big Mike said...

The men have AK-47s. We’ll see how long this can last.

Political Junkie said...

Agree Gilbar. Dark hair, dark eyes, with European features. Hubba hubba.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

about time.

Big Mike said...

Persian women are most beautiful women in the world

Nope. Bulgarians. Or the women of Moldova.

Kate said...

Stay safe, rose-lipt maiden.

EdwdLny said...

The Kenyan had an opportunity to support freedom in Iran. But he doesn't support freedom, like all of his ilk he is a tyrant at heart. Some things and people never change.

n.n said...

Nationwide protests that have erupted since the overthrow of the Shah. Good luck.

Roger Sweeny said...

My wife works in a high-powered educational institution and knows several muslim women who deliberately wear head scarves to set themselves apart and feel part of a community of hijabis (if you see a woman wearing one, you know she's a muslim like you).

It means different things to different women in different places.

Gahrie said...

At my school about half of the Arabic girls continue to wear the hijab.

Christy said...

In the early days of Covid I amused myself with a scarf in place of a mask. I did run into a number of Muslim women I'd ask advice on wearing. Then both sisters let me know how awful I looked.

I'd like to think I'd stand wearing a hajib but wouldn't put up with a burqa.

Rusty said...

Big Mike said...
"The men have AK-47s. We’ll see how long this can last."
Last I checked an AK47 can't get you nutted.

cf said...

thanks, Michael K and EdwdLny, both remind us that Pres. Obama turned his back on the courageous Green Revolution. Indeed, what a Heartbreaker on so many levels.

Hubert the Infant said...

Are hijabs religious system or aren't they? We are constantly told that prohibiting Muslim women from wearing head coverings is Islmaophobic. When Western governments all of a sudden required face coverings, I thought -- for the first time -- that perhaps Muslim women had a point. However, now we are being told that forcing Iranian women to wear hijabs is political, not religious.

wildswan said...

One of the major surprises about this revolt is that it began as a protest about the position of women and is being supported by the men. There are other issues but the women's issues have not been set aside. This has to mean a deep change in Iranian society, coming after theocratic anti-women rule spent thirty or forty years trying to entrench itself.

Bunkypotatohead said...

In another 100 years they'll be wearing short skirts and sassing their professors.

Ukraine girls really knock me out.

Martin said...

Kimia, 23 sounds naive to me. The leftists that thought they could use the Ayatollah to overthrow the Shah and then go happily about their lives as somewhat free people were also naive. Until the country is not run by the people who run it the hijab will always be on the table. Ask the Afghani women who believed we would stand by them.

Ancient Mariner said...

The headscarf rebellion seems to indicate that civil disobedience can work even in a highly repressive society.

rwnutjob said...

Too bad we don[t have an administration that supports the people instead of the Mullahs.
An administration that would have isolated Iran with an unpresented treaty with the Gulf Stats & Israel. Or an administration that would have starved the Mullahs of their revenue with cheap oil. Too bad we don't have something like that.

n.n said...

Or an administration that would have starved the Mullahs of their revenue with cheap oil

And a hundred billion dollars in direct transfer payments overriding counterclaims against the Islamic regime, a diplomatic protocol and proliferation, and a premature evacuation that birthed the Second Iraq War and a stepping stone toward the World War Spring series in progress.

walter said...

At first glance, I thought this was about Birx.