Explained: Why Iranian women are cutting their hair and burning hijabs

Hyderabad: Scores of videos showing Iranian women chopping off their hair and burning their hijab are doing rounds on social media. For the unversed, they are doing it as part of their protest over the death of a 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, who allegedly suffered a heart attack after she was taken into custody by […]

Hyderabad: Scores of videos showing Iranian women chopping off their hair and burning their hijab are doing rounds on social media. For the unversed, they are doing it as part of their protest over the death of a 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, who allegedly suffered a heart attack after she was taken into custody by the so-called morality police for not wearing her hijab properly.

As per BBC, Amini was visiting the capital Tehran with her family when she was arrested by the morality police, who accused her of violating the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab and their arms and legs with loose clothing. She collapsed after being taken to a detention centre to be “educated”.

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There are reports that officers beat her head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles. The police have denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered “sudden heart failure”. But her family has said she was fit and healthy.

Amini died in hospital on September 16, after spending three days in a coma. Her brother waited outside the police station for her to be released, however an ambulance pulled up and took his sister to the hospital.

Now, several Muslim and Iranian women across the world protesting by taking off their headscarves and cutting their hair. They are shouting “death to the dictator” – a chant often used about the Supreme Leader. Others shouted, “justice, liberty, no to mandatory hijab”.

https://twitter.com/IhteshamAfghan/status/1573076399790997504?s=20&t=6JvwxeJ3yZk59VHCMWOf2w

This video brought tears to my eyes.
Women & men burning compulsory hijab in the streets of Tehran where #MahsaAmini was beaten up to death by hijab police.
The woman who took the video says; our dream comes true Finally we are burning the symbol of our oppression in the street. pic.twitter.com/P9WYBixKw4

— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) September 19, 2022

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist, wrote on Twitter: “Iranian women show their anger by cutting their hair and burning their hijab to protest against the killing of #Mahsa_Amini by hijab police.”

“From the age of 7 if we don’t cover our hair we won’t be able to go to school or get a job. We are fed up with this gender apartheid regime,” She added.

What are Iran’s hijab laws?

Under Iran’s sharia (Islamic) law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators face public rebuke, fines, or arrest.

Morality police, who are known formally as “Gasht-e Ershad” (Guidance Patrols), are tasked, among other things, with ensuring women conform to the authorities’ interpretation of “proper” clothing.

These officers are given the power to stop women and assess whether they are showing too much hair or if their trousers and overcoats are too short or close-fitting or if they are wearing too much make-up.

In 2014, Iranian women began sharing photos and videos of themselves publicly flouting the hijab laws as part of an online protest campaign called “My Stealthy Freedom”. It has since inspired other movements, including “White Wednesdays” and “Girls of Revolution Street”.

Scores of people, irrespective of gender, are protesting in Iran demanding an end to decades of women’s oppression.