Protests have erupted across the country of Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who was detained by the regime’s morality police for failing to uphold proper hijabi code regulations.
According to the Guardian, she was arrested when traveling to Tehran to visit family and was beaten while in the custody of the police. Amini was taken to the intensive care unit after losing consciousness during her arrest, authorities telling her family she would be released after re-education. Police reports indicate she died of a heart attack, while her family members and other independent sources have claimed her brain failed after receiving multiple head wounds.
Amini’s death has sparked human rights groups and other activists to take to the streets. Protests began on Sept. 17, 2022, the day after her funeral, which spread quickly to 80 Iranian cities. Both the government and its police have met protesters with violence and force, including batons, tear gas, guns and even metal pellets. Authorities have sought to obfuscate fatalities, as “Iran’s state-run media said that at least 17 people have been killed in the past week, but human rights groups say the death toll is most likely much higher, at least 30, according to some sources,” says Time magazine.
The state has also cut off citizen internet access in an attempt to silence their voices. However, photos and videos of women boldly protesting in the streets have still made their way into circulation on social media. As described by the New York Times, “In several of the videos of the uprising that have torn across social media, women rip off their headscarves and burn them in street bonfires, including in deeply religious cities such as Qum and Mashhad. In one, a young woman atop a utility cabinet cuts off her hair in front of a crowd of roaring demonstrators.”
The heart of this conflict and its subsequent violence concerns Islamic debate regarding the hijab, a headscarf used by Muslim women as mentioned in the Qur’an. Multiple verses in the Qur’an refer to female modesty and dress, yet Muslims worldwide contest whether these verses mandate the hijab. Foremost of these verses is 24:31 of the Qur’an, which states, “And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to reveal their adornments except what normally appears. Let them draw their veils over their chests, and not reveal their ˹hidden˺ adornments except to their husbands, their fathers, their fathers-in-law, their sons…” Some argue that this modesty was merely a cultural practice of the period from which the Qur’an originated. Others understand it as a legally and divinely binding commandment, thus having application not only for the cultural period of the Prophet but even today.
Hijabi mandates were originally instated and enforced in Iran in 1983 during the time of the Khomeinists, who gained control of the country in 1979 and found the article of clothing a useful way to solidify their power.
According to Alex Vatanka in Foreign Policy, “mandatory hijab-wearing has become a non-negotiable litmus test for anyone who professes loyalty to the Islamic Republic. In its ideological messaging, the regime increasingly seeks to portray the “hijab” as a pillar of the Islamic Republic, without which the political order would be at risk.” For Iranian authorities, especially Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to protest hijabi mandates is equivalent to challenging the regime.
Both support and opposition to the legislation are present within Iran’s clerical class. Some refer to verses regarding female modesty in the Qur’an, while others claim it cannot be interpreted as a mandate. However, few members of the clergy would ever be so bold as to openly oppose the enforcement of the hijab. “What there are many more of, however, are those who distinguish between it as a tradition to be upheld and something that should be enforced as compulsory. In other words, there are clerics that support the regime but suggest that flexibility in enforcing the hijab is in the interest of the country,” says Vatanka.
Despite the consistent demands of protesters and activists, national and international, the Iranian government has consistently ignored and silenced opposition for the sake of uniformity, both in the political and clerical spheres.
Photo courtesy of Ilham Akbar Fauzi