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Headscarf protesters step up their defiance of regime

The sight of women protesting without their hijabs has become the new normal more than 40 days after Mahsa Amini’s death, despite threats of bullets, tear gas and arrests.

An unveiled woman stands on top of a vehicle as thousands make their way towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini's home town, to mark 40 days since her death. Picture: AFP
An unveiled woman stands on top of a vehicle as thousands make their way towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini's home town, to mark 40 days since her death. Picture: AFP

As Iran’s regime faces its biggest protests in recent history, a new normal is sweeping across the country’s urban centres. Teenage girls and older women are taking to the streets without their headscarf, or hijab, bravely defying the mandatory requirement to cover their heads in public.

The death of Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten in police custody for the inappropriate wearing of her headscarf, has prompted the biggest wave of dissent against strict religious dress codes since the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Women and girls say they are determined to confront the once seemingly unbreakable theocracy. The protests continued this weekend in city centres and university campuses more than 40 days after Ms Amini’s death and even as the regime used bullets, tear gas and arrests to quell them.

Students protest outside the University of Medical Sciences in Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz, as women-led nationwide protests ramped up. Picture: AFP/Twitter
Students protest outside the University of Medical Sciences in Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz, as women-led nationwide protests ramped up. Picture: AFP/Twitter

In the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Farnaz, a 15-year-old high school pupil, glared defiantly at Iran’s riot police as she strolled around the streets, her long dark hair flowing freely. “The morality police tried to arrest me on a number of occasions, but I am a fast runner and also am familiar with the different backstreets, so every time I was approached by the guards, I ran away quickly and was able to survive,” she said.

Farnaz demonstrates courage in a country which has had no qualms about murdering civilians on the street. Thousands of young women with an average age of 17 have been imprisoned for demonstrating against the regime since early September, according to a government report obtained by News Wire.

Farnaz said she was cheered for not covering her hair, and greeted with other slogans now synonymous with the protests, including “woman, life, freedom”. In the less affluent neighbourhoods, however, she encountered opposition and resistance to change.

Ms Amini, who was of Kurdish origin, was arrested on September 13 in Tehran by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly, part of a renewed moral crackdown by the leadership of President Ebrahim Raisi. She fell into a coma and died three days later, aged 22.

Iran Human Rights said that at least 253 protesters had been killed by Iran’s security forces in the past six weeks, 34 of them children. The number of arrests had topped 14,000. Mr Raisi’s government announced on Monday that it would hold public trials for 1000 people for “subversive actions” in the protests.

Kourosh Ziabari, a journalist, said that despite Iran’s attempts to lock down the country’s internet and social media, images were flooding online platforms showing women walking without headscarves in public places, from shopping centres and restaurants to schools and universities. “[They] are calling on the government to stop politicising their way of dressing and using religion to suffocate the public manifestation of their identity,” he said.

– The Times

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/headscarf-protesters-step-up-their-defiance-of-regime/news-story/25c2b9521ba41524b50e00a7c86b98d1