Iranian Women demonstrate against government following January riots

This January/February marks forty years since protests erupted which eventually sparked and gave momentum to the revolutionary forces within Iran that caused the toppling of the pro-western (U.S.) and pro-modernisation Shah. Four decades on, large scale protests have once again swept through the metropolitan centres of Iran, evoking government crackdowns and public outcry both internally and internationally. From the frayed ends of these protests came another in the form of women, in public, removing their compulsory veils in these metropolitan centres and waving them defiantly. Again, like so many times before, women of Iran are demonstrating their disdain for the forced veil and making a stance for the furthering of women's rights in Iran.

Iranian women have always been on the frontline when it comes to their rights. The 1930's was an important era for women's liberation through edicts such as introducing a national Women's Day (8th March) in 1936, and allowing women's admission into Tehran university in the same year, although other controversial edicts were made such as the forced unveiling of women which alienated the clerics and religious sects of Iran. However, the momentum that increased the most within the women's rights movement began during the White Revolution of the 1960's under Mohammad Reza Shah. Women earned their suffrage in 1963 and were able to run for office in the Majlis (parliament), as well as the establishment of the Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1973 which gave women a more equal footing in regards to divorce and child custody.

Even during the Iranian Revolution (1978-79) women played an integral part; Ayatollah Khomeini said "Iranian women have a larger part than men in this movement and this revolution. Our men are indebted to the bravery of you lionhearted women" . The significance of women and the fight for women's rights cannot be understated during this important period in time. The newly formed Islamic Republic saw women fighting for the rights that they would subsequently lose under the regimes strict Islamic policies, such as the Women's Day march on March 8th 1979 that found the streets of Tehran amassed with 100,000 women protesting 'forced hijab' by the Islamic government.

Throughout the Iran-Iraq War the issue of women's rights was further suppressed due to the mounting exhaustion of the war and increased fervour for the Islamic Republic; not until the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the end of the war would there be a more liberal shift within the country. A political battle between liberal politicians and conservatives hardliners within the Majlis began soon after with different interpretations of the Qur'an being used to restrict and dissolve harsher policies upon women within the Republic.

On June 12th 2004, four-hundred women demonstrated in the streets of Tehran against the stagnation of progressive policies towards women. This was the most significant women's demonstration since the March demonstrations in 1979 and garnered much international attention. Yet these women were not taken seriously and many were sent to prison. Women have been silenced with imprisonment, censorship and the use of 'improper Hijab' as a way to conveniently charge activists and such charges are often used by the courts to silence political dissidents; those relating to Hijab are particularly common against women.

The Struggle Continues

Twenty-nine women were arrested at the beginning of February 2018 following the recent protests against Rouhani's government. Women are going out into the streets and unveiling themselves in public, a prosecutable offence, to demonstrate their outcry against the compulsory veil law. Although the recent protests were to do with inflation and government corruption, women nonetheless began to stand up and remove their veils making a clear statement, "No more hijab". It's important to keep in mind the use of the word Hijab which refers to the plethora of coverings women can adopt in Islamic countries, although there are many different variations of the veil (please see link for more information: http://www.mypersiancorner.com/2013/08/a-guide-to-hijab-in-islamic-republic.html).

The struggle for women's 'liberation' (a term that needs careful consideration) has continued within a more youth based culture thanks to the availability of social media platforms. Telegram, whose headquarters are in Saudi Arabia, is one such messaging application used widely in Iran which has been under threat from the government in recent months, not to mention the banning of Facebook and Twitter in 2009. Young women and political activists both inside and outside Iran have taken up a massive social media campaign against the forced hijab. 'My Stealthy Freedom' is a popular example of this new form of activism with over 1 million likes on Facebook. The page allows women in Iran to send photos of themselves without their compulsory hijab.

One act of solidarity sparked the trending hashtag #WhiteWednesdays. This hashtag denotes the efforts of women who remove a white veil and wave it upon a stick/pole. On February 7th, women in Turkey, led by the activist group Kadinlara Sor, made a series of demonstrations across Turkish cities from Istanbul to Antalya. These demonstrations were intended to show support for women in Iran protesting compulsory veil laws which, according to the description on the 'My Stealthy Freedom' page, "means solidarity, cross-cultural understanding, and international support for Iranian women's freedom of choice". The White Wednesdays hashtag was used on many related articles and is used by many from western countries to join in the conversation. Although it is important to bear in mind Turkey's far more laxed stance on women and the hijab.

The backlash against these women has, in some ways, been unsurprising. Morality police have given fines or "re-educated" women but in some instances, such as the twenty-nine women at the beginning of the month, police are being forthright and detaining women who demonstrate. Although Rouhani himself in the beginning of January said, "One cannot force one’s lifestyle on the future generations, The problem is that we want two generations after us to live the way we like them to”, the generation of Iranians brought up since 1979 has led to a generation of international seclusion. Yet these Iranians have gained access to the world through the internet and with it a new platform to demonstrate from, a new platform to spread ideas or be influenced themselves. Indeed smart phone technology and the use of VPN's (Virtual Private Networks) to gain access to blocked content has rapidly changed not only the way we perceive Iran, but the way Iranians perceive their own country.

Although these demonstrations may lose momentum under governmental repression, like so many women's movements before, the lasting impact upon this generation of women and the next may one day bring about a lasting social impact permanently within Iran.

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