Female Protesters Against Mandatory Hijab Welcome Action of Girl Protester in Revolution Square

Girls who protested mandatory hijab six months ago and faced government crackdown welcomed the action of another girl who protested mandatory hijab on Monday in Revolution Square by removing her headscarf.

A girl whose identity is still unknown climbed the green dome-shaped symbol of Revolution Square on Monday, November 7, and protested mandatory hijab. While not wearing a hijab, she waved a red scarf and red and white balloons in her hands.

After a few minutes, while people silently watched this civil protest, a police officer climbed up the dome, arrested the girl, and brought her down.

People expressed their protest against the arrest of the “Revolution Square girl” with whistling and clapping.

Her symbolic action showed that, contrary to claims by the Islamic Republic, open protests against mandatory hijab in Iran have not ended.

Iran’s official media did not publish reports about the civil protest of the Revolution Square girl, and Islamic Republic officials have not yet reacted to this issue.

Open protests by women against “mandatory hijab” in Iran began last year. Protests that were marked on December 27, 2017, when “Vida Movahed” climbed an electrical box on Revolution Street and tied her white scarf to a stick, encouraging other women to take to the streets in different Iranian cities to show civil protest.

Protesting women who held their scarves in different parts of cities and protested silently became known as “Revolution Street Girls.”

Revolution Street Girls such as “Shaparak Shajarizedeh,” “Vida Movahed,” “Narges Hosseini,” “Shima Babaei,” and “Maryam Shariatmadari” were arrested by police and security authorities under conditions where harsh treatment by officers at the time of arrest sometimes made headlines. The Iranian government issued prison sentences for some of these women.

Mandatory hijab in Iran was raised as one of violations of citizens’ rights in March 1979. This was at a time when religious leaders during the revolution had not announced that hijab would become mandatory for women after the revolution.

Concurrent with the raising of the mandatory hijab issue, thousands gathered in Tehran for protest demonstrations, but these protests were unsuccessful, and not only were women forced to wear government-approved hijab, but security and police officers, under the guise of “guidance patrols,” took on the task of dealing with women who they said were “improperly veiled” or “unveiled.”

Following the launch of campaigns to remove mandatory hijab, the issuance of court sentences for this group of protesters intensified to the point that even “Nasrin Sotoudeh,” the lawyer for the “Revolution Street Girls,” was arrested on charges including accepting representation of those protesting mandatory hijab. Farhad Meisami, a doctor and human rights activist, has been imprisoned since August for supporting the campaign of women against mandatory hijab.

Despite all coercive and violent police actions and harsh sentences of several years imprisonment for women opposed to mandatory hijab, and while Iran’s leader calls protesting women “deceived,” civil protests against mandatory hijab continue.

This girl’s civil protest against mandatory hijab occurred just two days after a female student was hit by a guidance patrol vehicle. Police intended to display power and break this girl’s resistance by hitting her with the vehicle, but not only did this female student’s resistance not break, but this time this resistance manifested itself in the form of another girl’s civil protest against mandatory hijab in Revolution Square.

Encounters between guidance patrols and police with those opposed to mandatory hijab occur at a time when Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, claimed that the government never deals with anyone merely for opposing hijab, but then reported on dealing with women who advocate and promote their opposition to hijab.

Previous Protesters’ Reactions to Mandatory Hijab

Arrests and judicial actions against “Revolution Street Girls” clearly demonstrate the comments of Iran’s head of judiciary to prevent further protests by women opposed to mandatory hijab. Although these actions have not been able to deter women’s civil protests. To the extent that the protesting girl on Monday, knowing she would be arrested, proceeded with her protest.

The protest action of the anonymous Revolution Square girl against mandatory hijab received support from other “Revolution Street Girls” in cyberspace. They wrote about the multiplication of “Revolution Street Girls.”

“Maryam Shariatmadari,” another arrested “Revolution Street Girl” who was forcefully pulled down from an electrical box on Revolution Street in Tehran, also supported the unknown Revolution Square girl with this tweet.

“Shaparak Shajarizedeh,” who left Iran after facing judicial action, also posted on her Instagram page a film of the “Revolution Square” girl with the words “The voice of Revolution Street Girls will not be silenced.”

Social media users also showed many reactions to this girl’s protest in Revolution Square.

One of these reactions was from “Taraneh Alidoosti,” an Iranian actress, who shared a video on Twitter about the history of women’s struggles against mandatory hijab from the Iran Human Rights Campaign channel.

Previously, some notable figures such as “Mahnaz Afshar” and “Anahita Hamti,” Iranian actresses, had supported women’s rights.

Protests against mandatory hijab in Iran are not limited to the country’s borders. Along with protests by human rights organizations, some international figures, including an Indian chess player, decided to withdraw from participating in a chess tournament in Iran because of the enforcement of mandatory hijab for women.

The U.S. State Department and human rights organizations have repeatedly protested in recent years the harsh treatment of those protesting mandatory hijab in Iran.

Previously, Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, in protesting the arrest of 30 women opposed to mandatory hijab, stated that “the Iranian people deserve to have their human rights respected.”

Source: Voice of America