Iranian women: This is not just about hijab

“From the beginning of the revolution we were told that those in power shouldn’t be criticized, but if we had been allowed to criticize, we wouldn’t have so much embezzlement, theft and betrayal.”

These were the words of Azam Taleghani, who was among the most prominent individuals of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and being among the four women representatives of the first parliament after the Revolution, in one of her speeches right before her death in 2019. Azam Taleghani, who was imprisoned under the Shah regime and whose father was a quite influential cleric, has been saying about the parliamentary debates regarding the compulsory hijab “If the same obligation was not given on men, then this cannot be obligated on women either”. Quite interestingly, Taleghani never took off her dark veil called “chador” during her entire political career, or even after that. And her countless applications for presidential candidacy with her dark veil, has ended in the same way as it did with all other women: It was rejected by the Constitutional Council.

What do these women want?

43 years after the revolution made by Taleghani and many other women and men, against the imperialism and its inner collaborator the Shah regime, the Iranian women are once again on the streets at the forefront. This wave of pretests that began after Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran and died soon after in custody, is the largest wave of protests ever since the 1979 Revolution. Iranian people are taking on the streets in almost all provinces of the country. So, what are the demands from the streets, what do these women want, to what extent does the Iranian society support these protests and where does imperialism stand in the face of these protests? When the provocative reports from the west and the social media misinformation is combined with harsh internet restrictions, it gets very hard to reach any information from the region. Restrictions and misinformation have reduced the demands of the street protesters down to the issue of compulsory hijab practices.

It is seen that some women do not wear hijab on the streets of Tehran after the protests. (December 5, 2022).     PHOTO: Fatemeh Bahrami/AA

‘The main problem is The Constitution’

However, the Iranian women tell that the compulsory hijab practices, that were stereotyped with the Iranian women, have already relaxed in most regions before the protests. According to them hijab is not a problem on its own. A small textile business owner Vida S. (39) stated that the restrictions were mostly ignored before the protests, while driving or in public places such as cafes: “Especially after the protests, most women go out in the streets with their hair unveiled.”

A housewife Sara N. (38) also states that the compulsory hijab does not affect the social life deeply, on its own. However, she thinks that women should be free to wear the outfit they desire, just as men do. A schoolteacher from Tabriz Nasrin N. (42) stated the following on the compulsory hijab, which she defined as a formality and as an artificial practice: “The main problem that affects the social life, are the practices that are caused by the Sharia Law. For example, men can “divorce” their wives as they wish, after paying a one-time allowance called mahr. The same does not apply for women. A woman could not “divorce” her husband because she did not love him. She has to prove there is a heavy misconduct of the man, which allows the woman to get a divorce, such as domestic violence or drug abuse. And even if she gets the divorce, she could not get the child’s custody after the age of 7, if the man is still not keeping the same manners mentioned above. A woman cannot get a passport without her husband’s or her father’s permission. She cannot get an equal share of the inheritance as her male siblings. They cannot be judges, or even witnesses at homicide cases. And even at other trials, a female witness is given half credibility of a male witness.”

Sara (left), Seher (upper right) and Nesrin (lower right)

‘The conditions were already there, hijab just ignited the fire’

Vida tells that the main problem that took all these people to the streets, were economic. Nasrin says “Iranian currency is constantly losing value. Our purchasing power has dropped significantly, people are struggling to survive. The hijab just ignited the protests, in such state of turmoil. It is not just the women, but everyone is taking on the streets. This is a revolutionary movement”. And when I asked one of my Iranian friends, who has not taken off her veil even in Turkiye and whom I know very closely, whether these protests were actually because of hijab or not, she responded “Did you join the Gezi Park protests in 2013 because of just trees?”.

Sahar, whose entire youth was spent in Tehran and was spent with “the fear of going to hell because of her hair”, says hijab is also one of the main issues. Sahar speaks of the difficulties she had 30 years ago when she studies arts in university: “A group of theology students would come to us and call us ‘degenerates’. I was subjected to a lot of discrimination as a woman playing a music instrument. I was not allowed to play in front of men, I needed a license for concerts. Or some of our song lyrics were censored because it had sexual meanings, even if these songs belonged to a famous Islamic cleric…”

‘Women are pushed into two different lifestyles’

Sahar says that women are subjected to severe discrimination because they were only perceived sexually and are pushed into having two different lifestyles one out in the streets, and one at home. Sahar says that women are being treated as “second class citizens”: “Laws are heavily on men’s favor in marriages, in business and in inheritance. However in all developed and developing countries, law are supposed to protect women and children. It is exactly the opposite in Iran. We wish for a new constitution in which we are represented as equals with men; we demand freedom of speech, freedom to criticize and to have universal suffrage in elections that are made free and fair.”

Claiming that religion and politics should be separated, Vida describes her demands as follows: “I do not want to be seen or treated as a terrorist. We want better life conditions as we deserve as the Iranian people”. Sara also has no other expectations other than “a normal life which men and women have same rights”. The obstetrician Delara N. (53) also says she wants live a “normal life”. For her, the way to do this is to “give women all the rights they deserve in social, political and private life that which would be all aspects of a human life”.

‘The fear of the imperialists…’

We asked them about the support messages for the protests in Iran, from the USA and EU. All women we have spoken to have a clear stance against the US and EU. Vida says “The intellect and the culture of the Iranian people are the reason for the imperialist powers’ fears. That is why there is no chance that they would support our development as a nation. We would stay restricted until this problem is resolved and that is exactly what the imperialists want, they do not wish an Iran which has gotten over its internal problems. Therefore, the US and Europe also wants the current government to stay in power, for their own benefits. That is because the internal problems will stay as long as the government stays in power”.

Sara highlights that the globalization has severely damaged a country’s will to take its own decisions not only in Iran but in all countries, and that the Western colonialism is no more legitimized through war but through “problems” such as race or sectarianism, while adding that: “The West does not see any benefits from the consequences of these protests. If they ever knew they would benefit from this, they would put out a much more decisive intervention”.

And according to Nasrin, who said the US and Europe is not content with these protests since they do not desire a peaceful Middle East, the messages of support from the West are just a façade and not quite sincere: “They do not want to subject Iranians. We have already seen the examples of their subjugations from Iraq and Afghanistan”.

Vida says “The intellect and the culture of the Iranian people are the reason for the imperialist powers’ fears.”

The power behind these protests

All the demands that rise out of Iran is neither unexpected when we think about the women influence in universities, academia and the social life despite all the obstacles, nor is it unexpected to find the “great powers” looking for an opportunity whenever there is turmoil in our region … Despite all this, the demands of equality from women and economic demands from the public are balancing out with being an instrument to imperialism.

Just like Taleghani was not a “servant to the US” or a “Western lapdog” or a “traitor”, nether are Sahar, Sara or Vida who were forced to take on streets for the sake of having a normal life. The things that happened, show that those who are benefitting from the Sharia Law, need to finally listen to the women that have suffered from it.

The economic crisis that is deepening by each day and enslaving the population to severe poverty under heavy sanctions from the West, stands as one of the bigger factors behind the protests in Iran. The Iranians know very well about the conditions for these bursts, during which great changes took place. The Iranian clergy was not able to stand against the Shah before its own interests were actually threatened with a land reform and before the merchants connected to the clergy were threatened by the global industries. And this was during when the most radical “reforms” were taking place, including the ban on hijab. The clergy only remembered its authority of inspecting the laws according to the Sharia Law in the land reforms of 1963, since when they first got this right in the first constitution of Iran in 1906 constitution.

Nature will take its course

So, it is “in accordance with the usual situation” when a class a group or an individual to raise their voices when their economic assurances are taken away and when they are suffering through hardships and difficulties. Looking for a “foreign intervention” in such situations, is basically as wrong as rowing against the tide. No country, and especially not the United States, would not export any “revolutions” or “reforms” to Iran, as easy as they did to Arab countries. That is because Iran is one of the two regional powers that has strong state traditions and great cultural accumulations, whose society relies on the concept of anti-imperialism. The Iranian government either finds a new course for this river tide, or “drains the entire river” for now, which will flow even stronger in the next couple years. But sooner or later, that river has to flow towards its riverbed.