"A history of the Hijab Law in Iran."

 

An excerpt from my book, "Uprising: We are the revolution."

     “What you’re seeing today is not something that just happened. There’s been a long history of women protesting and defying authority in Iran.”

 

     The brutal and unjust murder of Jina Mahsa Amini by the morality police has a long history behind it. In order to understand and put into context the oppressive treatment of women by the present Iranian government, it is necessary to take a brief historical survey of the evolution of the Hijab Law in Iran.

     Tihara Qurrat al- ‘Ayn was one of the first women to unveil, questioning the political and religious orthodoxy in Iran. Tihara was a poet and religious scholar for the Bahai faith. She was very outspoken against the restraints placed on women and during a Babi conference in 1848, she unveiled before a congregation of men during a lecture. Her opposition to the treatment of women and her involvement within the Bahai faith, landed her in prison in 1852.

     “You can kill me as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women,” Tahira proclaimed, realizing her death was imminent.

     In August of that same year, Tahira was the first woman to be executed on the grounds of “corruption on earth.” She was strangled to death by her own veil, thrown in to a shallow well, and stoned to death at the age of 35.

                                                                    

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     The first real challenge to the conservative religious establishment in Iran came by Reza Shah, General of the Persian Cossack Brigade, and recognized as the first Shah of the House of Pahlavi. He introduced social, economic, and political reforms, replacing Islamic Law with modern Western laws. It was under his reign that Iran became a constitutional monarchy. Striking out against the establishment, Reza Shah banned Islamic clothing, separation of the sexes, and the mandatory veiling of women. In 1936, he implemented “Kashf-e-hijab,” a reform that was aimed at weakening the conservative/traditional religious system. The law stated that if a women wore a veil in public, the police had the right to remove it. The Shah regarded the hijab as a sign of “backwardness” and went so far as compelling men to wear western costumes and hats. The religious establishment was outraged at the new reforms and declared that the unveiling of women was a mortal blow to their values and power.

     In 1941, when Reza Shah went into exile, the ban eased, allowing women to return to their traditional ways of dressing.

     The Shah’s son, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi was also greatly influenced by western culture. In 1963, he introduced a series of reforms, called, “The White Revolution.” One of the laws implemented gave women the right to vote. Four years later in 1967, women were finally granted equal rights in a male-dominated society. The age for marriage was raised from 13 to 18 years of age. This also angered the religious establishment. The Ayatollah Khomeini, who had been exiled by the Shah, began preaching the concept of an “Islamic republic,” through books and cassette tapes. His sermons and teachings began to take root in the conservative/religious establishment, causing uprisings, and demonstrations by thousands of people. Unable to cope with the growing protests, and death threats, like his father before him, the Shah and his family were forced into exile in January 1979. This immediately opened the way for the Ayatollah Khomeini to return from exile in Paris and on February 1, he was greeted by millions of supporters in Tehran to begin the Iranian revolution.

     The Ayatollah immediately reversed all of the reform policies of the Pahlavi Dynasty. Beaches and sports became “sex-segregated.” Women were no longer allowed to serve as judges and the Islamic Clothing Law was re-instituted.

    On March 8, 1979, International Women’s Day, tens of thousands of women marched into Tehran, protesting the veil law. Three thousand women gathered in Qom, the religious city and residence of Khomeini. The women boldly marched into the city without wearing their veils, chanting, “We didn’t’ have a revolution to go backwards.”  There were also 15,000 protesters who gathered at the Palace of Justice for a three-hour sit in, presenting a list of demands, including the right of choice to dress, equal civil rights with men, and no discrimination in the political, social, and economic arenas. However, the new Ayatollah refused to listen!

    In July of 1981, The Hijab law was passed and veiling in public became mandatory. Two years later, The Islamic punishment law was instituted stating that if a woman was caught unveiled in public, she would be sentenced to 74 lashes. Every reform of freedom that had been instituted by the previous Shah, had been completely abolished by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The oppression of women had begun, and they would be ruled by Islamic law from the cradle to the grave.

     Under the presidency of Ahmadinejad in 2005, the Morality Police was established, which would begin patrolling the streets searching for offenders of the Hijab Law.  The Iranian government recently has upgraded their efforts to prosecute women violators by implementing new technology using facial recognition. Now women are receiving citations in the mail for hijab violations even though they have not had any physical contact with law enforcement. Iran’s national identity database, which was built in 2015 by the Cyber Police, contains facial scans for national ID cards. This database is being used to identify and catch veil law breakers as they travel to shopping malls and peruse the streets of Tehran.

    In August of 2022, President Ebrahim Raisi introduced additional hijab and chastity restrictions. Women who violated the law can now lose access to banks, public transportation, and other essential government services. Repeat offenders can spend years in prison for refusing to veil publicly. This new technology is a policy shift that relies less and less on informants and physical contact with Morality Police. Digital surveillance had become the new tactic to keep track of “veil violators.” The government is using their new technology to enforce their gender apartheid. In 2020, women began receiving text messages in their car, reminding them to wear a veil or be arrested. The facial recognition technology reduces the presence of police, especially cutting down on the brutal clashes between citizens, as in the case of Mahsa Amini. Facial recognition technology comes directly from the Chinese camera and artificial intelligence company, known as Tandy, Tandy is one of the largest security camera manufacturers in the world.

     For over 43 years, the women of Iran have suffered greatly under a government dedicated to oppressing their human rights. From the ban on attending sports events to riding bicycles, women have reached their limit. They are rising from the ashes of discrimination. This is now their revolution!