New Delhi: Several Iranian women, as well as actors, activists and journalists, shaved their heads on live television and in online videos in protest against the mandatory hijab laws imposed by the Khamenei government in 2022. Four years later, following the strikes by the United States and Israel, Iranian women are once again protesting.
While they’re celebrating the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the women also condemn war on social media and at public events. Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad posted a video on X on 1 March expressing ecstasy, and British-Iranian actress Elika Ashoori took to Instagram to voice her anti-war stance.
Why did they cut their hair
Both Alinejad and Ashoori cut their hair in 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini of Kurdish-Iranian descent.
Amini was in Iran when the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrols), known as Iran’s morality police, arrested her. It was reported that Amini was taken to a detention centre for education after she was found violating Iranian law, which requires women to cover their hair and neck with a hijab.
While in custody, Amini allegedly collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where she died three days later. Eyewitnesses and her parents claimed that Amini was beaten with a baton to the head. Tehran Police attributed her death to heart failure; however, her parents told the media that she was healthy and had no problems.
Amini’s death triggered protests across the country. Women across social media and even on live television started cutting their hair. The protestors burnt hijabs in public and shouted slogans such as “Women. Life. Freedom”, reported Vogue. The 2022 protests claimed nine lives.
Also Read: Iran’s dictatorship deserved universal condemnation—but US-Israel strikes not reliable cure
Anti war, happiness and spreading love
Iranian women have once again taken to social media to voice their resistance to the strikes on 28 February and the resulting escalation.
Ashoori wrote on Instagram that there is no rejoicing at war. She stressed the collapse of an ideology that murdered thousands of Iranian women who died fighting.
“My stance has always been and always will be anti-war, but I refuse to be boxed into a moral code that asks me to mourn a firing squad or not rejoice at their destruction. For 46 years, the Islamic regime has not been a government; it has been an occupying force at war with its own people, relentlessly massacring, assaulting and abusing with no mercy. Killing thousands of children, women and men in the process,” she wrote.
In a video on X, Alinejad teared up as she said, “ I want to run, I want to shout.”
British-Iranian author Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was imprisoned for five years after she was allegedly found plotting against the Iranian government. Ratcliffe continues to speak about her traumatic experience.
Ratcliffe, at a public event in London, spoke about Khamenei’s death. She said that the supreme leader’s death is just the beginning of the end for a regime that has systemically abused its own citizens.
“I think it’s very naive to think that by removing (Khamenei) things are just going to be amazing, but I also understand that people can be quite excited about such an incident,” she said.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)