Iran is one of the countries where wearing Islamic hijab is mandatory for women. Iranian women on Tuesday launched an anti-hijab campaign across the country and posted a video on social media without hijab. By doing this, the women broke the strict hijab rules of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For this, the No2Hijab hashtag was also run on social media.
The important thing is that these women chose the day of 12th July to protest. Iran celebrates this day as the ‘National Day of Hijab and Chastity’. During this time, government institutions and agencies are instructed to promote the hijab for the whole week.
During the last few months, the security forces here have tried to strictly enforce the dress code . On the day of the demonstration, Iranian television telecast a video of the ‘Hijab and Chastity’ ceremony, in which 13 women were seen wearing green hijabs and long white dresses.
These women were dancing to a song based on verses from the Quran. In that verse the emphasis is on the veil of women. However, this video was also ridiculed on social media.
The hijab rule has been in force in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Under the law, it is mandatory for girls and women above the age of 9 to cover their heads in public. However, their strictness keeps on increasing or decreasing during the rule of different Presidents in the country.
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi called his opposition to the hijab law a moral corruption in Islamic society. Yet women have found a way to evade the law by wearing colorful scarves and showing some of their hair.
Earlier this month, an order was issued in the northeastern region of Iran. In this, it was asked to ban women without hijab from going to offices and banks or using metro service.
The anti-hijab social media campaign was led by US-based activist Masih Alinejad. Alinejad has run several online campaigns for Iranian women over the past decade. Before the protest, Masih Alinejad tweeted – Tomorrow Iranian women will take off their hijab and take to the streets of Iran and shake the regime here by saying No2Hijab.
On July 12 itself, he tweeted and said that we have removed the hijab as promised. Hope everyone joins us. Forcing women to wear the hijab is not part of Iranian culture. This is the culture of Taliban, ISIS and Islamic Republic. enough is enough.