A girl and her good friend are harassed by armed males on bikes in central Tehran. Their first thought was “put on a hijab”.
“Since that day, each time I heard the sound of a motorbike behind me, my physique froze,” one of many ladies recalled. The occasions of the previous yr are seared into her reminiscence.
“That’s why I do not go for walks anymore. When I do, I all the time have headphones on.”
Scenes like this are on a regular basis life in Tehran. This story was shared with Ghonche Ghavami, an Iranian feminist activist and editor-in-chief of Haraswatch, a Persian-language web site concerning the oppression and sexual violence confronted by ladies in Iran and all over the world.
Iranian ladies have submitted many articles like this one, revealed anonymously on the Harasswatch web site, concerning the oppression they face every single day underneath the Islamic Republic’s regime.
Ghawami herself has been underneath the management of Iran’s judicial system many occasions, however regardless of all of the hardships and risks, she stays in contact with many Iranian ladies.
What’s behind Iran’s ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests?
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“Women, Life, Freedom”
Although Zina Mahsa Amini’s demise within the fall of 2022 sparked nationwide protests, the scenario for girls in Iran has not improved.
Amini, a Kurdish girl, was arrested on a visit to Tehran and brought to a police station for not sporting a headband correctly.
Several hours later, she was taken from police custody to a hospital in an unconscious state. Three days later, on September 16, she was formally declared lifeless.
The ensuing protests, with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”, had been the longest-running demonstrations for the reason that institution of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The authorities responded with large-scale repression and violence.
Although precise numbers are tough to acquire, Iranian safety forces have killed no less than 550 demonstrators throughout protests within the 12 months since September 16, 2022, based on impartial human rights teams.
Seven males had been executed in reference to the protests. Amnesty International reported greater than 22,000 arrests.
The large value of protests in Iran
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None of them wore headscarves and mentioned they had been attacked and subjected to humiliating therapy by the Basij militia, a volunteer wing that’s systematically assigned to civilians and the Revolutionary Guards.
The subsequent day, greater than 60 ladies appeared in courtroom. Some had been sentenced to fines. “This is a misogynistic regime,” Sotoude mentioned.
“This rattling scarf.”
Iranian ladies, particularly those that refuse to put on headscarves or hijabs, face harassment, together with threats, lawsuits, punishment, bodily assaults, and the confiscation of their vehicles.
“Whether or not we put on this rattling scarf is related to many ideas and feelings for us: concern, disgrace, helplessness, anger, humiliation,” the Iranian girl advised Ghabami’s Harasswatch web site. .
Women reported that their emotions oscillated between braveness and hesitation.
“Many of us expertise these feelings every single day. We always have an inside dialogue with ourselves and with our fellow victims,” she mentioned.
“Having witnessed the revolution over the demise of Zina Mahsa Amini, how can we passively endure this humiliation? How can we ignore the stirrings in our our bodies? If it is vital to you, revealing the hijab means extra to us than that,” she added.
Unbreakable – My Struggle for Freedom in Iran
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She pressured that the choice to put on a shawl isn’t just a matter of gown, however one which challenges one’s self-image.
Another girl reported to Ghavami: “For me, not sporting a shawl is the premise of my id.” Wearing a shawl is a dilemma for her. “I really feel like I’m denying myself when I’m pressured to,” she says.
“Either be afraid of hijab cops on the subway or endure being coated. We do not need to return to that disgusting picture they created for us,” she mentioned.
Activist Sotoudeh mentioned the choice to put on a headband or have to arrange for harassment, if not lawsuits, severely limits ladies.
“The circumstances of Mahsa Amini and Armita Gheravand are a reminder of how restricted public mobility is for girls. When unsure, they like to remain at residence. And that’s precisely what rulers need. “We are right here,” Sotoude mentioned.
Gerawand, 16, was not sporting a shawl when she collapsed on the subway in early October 2023. Iranian state media mentioned she collapsed resulting from low blood stress. But human rights activists consider she was a sufferer of Iran’s “morality police.” She mentioned Gerawand died after being in a coma for a number of weeks.
Surveillance video reveals Geravand being dragged from the subway in Tehran. Image: Iranian State Television/AP/Video Union
This additionally applies to marriage, divorce, baby custody, employment, inheritance, and holding political workplace. Amnesty International additionally notes that the marriageable age for ladies underneath Iranian regulation is at the moment 13 years.
“The Struggle over Women’s Sexuality”
In her 2007 ebook, Women and Politics in Iran: Unveiled, Unveiled, and Revealed, American political scientist Hamideh Sej writes that the regime’s gender order locations nice emphasis on gown laws. It says that it’s.
For these in energy, the scarf is probably the most highly effective image of the Iranian revolution. “The Islamic revolution additionally developed right into a sexual counterrevolution, a wrestle over ladies’s sexuality,” Sedghi writes.
Since then, this sexuality has grow to be extremely political and has taken on notably anti-Western connotations. “If you do not put on a headband, I’ll hit you over the top” was one among his slogans in his 1979 revolutionary yr. “Death to the veiled” was one other of his slogans.
But Iranian ladies resist this paternalism, which continues to at the present time, activist Sotoudeh mentioned. Their protests, for instance, are directed in opposition to continued makes an attempt to drive ladies into bodily immobility.
“But we Iranian ladies can’t enable that to occur,” she mentioned.
Iranians overseas urge world to maintain up stress on Iran
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“United by the concept of human rights”
Sotoudeh mentioned for this reason there continues to be resistance to the regime’s laws. This usually occurs with Iranian males.
“Because whatever the energy struggles, the women and men of this nation are united by the concept of human rights,” she mentioned. This idea instantly impacts their day by day life.
“They yearn to normalize their lives, to dwell like everybody else on the earth, and to get up each morning with out listening to the information of yet one more younger woman being killed due to her clothes decisions. I’m.”
Sotoudeh advised DW that even when the regime doesn’t change its methods, the resistance motion has achieved some success.
To measure success, she mentioned, we have to change the best way we ask questions.
“What would have been our scenario if there had been no Mahasa motion? I’d enterprise to say that the scenario would have been a lot worse.”
This article has been translated from German