All as usual for my arrival, once more, at the Teheran Imam Khomeini Airport, or almost! As always, security measures are strict, yet passport stamping and entry visas are, surprisingly, easy, smooth and convenient.
In the baggage claim hall overlooking passengers reception, the reflection of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement that swept Iran for more than six months, was clear and bold. A majority of women does not wear veils and security forces do not adventure to search them, force or intimidate them. That, though some Iranian ladies who did not wear veils inside the plane, put them on as soon as the plane landed and before arriving at the passport office.
Before leaving the airport, I asked a relative of mine, who was at my reception and not wearing a hijab, if women were still challenging the regime on this issue- especially at an airport supposed to be an ideological showcase of the regime. “Not wearing the compulsory hijab has become a normal matter to a large extent. There is a challenge about it practiced by members of the regime in certain places, and there are heavy fines recorded against non-veiled women, as well as trials awaiting them, but it seems that all these pressures are to no avail”, she said.
She added, “The regime knows that fines and other pressures will have no effect, but it is trying to send a message to the Iranians that it will not back down. In return, there is a clear popular message emphasizing that women will not back down or submit.”
Days after my arrival in the Iranian capital, an 60 years old employee of the Iranian Gas Company told me, in private, that he had effectively taken part in the recent protests: “Iranian woman is the undisputed icon of the protests. Not only did she dazzle the Iranians with her courage and steadfastness, she also dazzled the whole world. He added, “this represents a brave and unparallered challenge against the ideology of the regime and it certainly will not recede under pressures to impose compulsory veiling.”
LE VENT DU CHANGEMENT souffle sur Ispahan (nesfeh jahan).
Les "Ninja girls" à l'oeuvre sur le pont 33 pol.
Rien ne sera jamais plus comme avant en #Iran. pic.twitter.com/As6qaIoora
— Armin Arefi (@arminarefi) July 4, 2023
He revealed that, during the protests, he personally witnessed many situations in which men withdrew in front of the ferocity of security forces, while many women stood firm, adding that “In the recent period, and in the face of the regime’s insistence and to subjugate women, they decided to exercise stubbornness, so to speak. On one occasion, the regime issued an administrative law prohibiting non-veiled women from entering the capital’s metro stations. Indeed security men prevented non-veiled women from entering, Result, large groups of veiled women removed their headscarves in solidarity with non-veiled women.
what does that mean? Why do women persist in confronting authorities on the issue of the veil?
It is clear that Iranian women belonging to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” camp consider the issue of not wearing the compulsory hijab and confronting the Iranian authorities’ oppression of them, as the most prominent weapon in the struggle, and even the last weapon left for them to liberate themselves from the authority of the Islamic regime and from the laws that suppress their freedom to choose their lives.
One of the women who regularly participated in the protests said that the regime tolerates the issue of the veil in some places, and is strict in others, stressing that the strictness is due to the regime’s efforts not to give up this card easily; adding that the regime’s economic and living policies may stir up the street again, and the regime does not want the obligatory veil issue to be branded in possible future economic or social protests.
Musa Ghani Nejad, a prominent professor of Economics at Sanat Sharif, known for his liberal orientation and a critic of the so-called “economic monopoly system” in Iran, says the regime could easily solve the issue of compulsory veiling according to the so-called “principle of higher interest”, by abandoning it based on the jurisprudential rule that says that the responsibility for preserving the system of the Islamic Republic outweighs in its importance all other responsibilities, including devotional ones such as prayer, fasting and pilgrimage. Ghani Nejad adds,however, that the regime will not yield on the issue of the veil for the simple reason that it considers the veil as the last line of defense. Moreove the issue of Hijab is more important than other issues in Shiism.
When you stroll through the streets of Tehran, from its north to its center and then to its south, you can clearly notice scenes of challenge between supporters of the compulsory veil and those who oppose it, and through that you can divide women into two main groups with regard to the issue of wearing the veil, in addition to a small third section that reflects Women who wear the hijab based on what is dictated by the jurisprudential religious mandate and what is imposed by Islamic law. As for the first category of women, they are the non-veiled women who refuse to wear it, while the second category are the non-veiled women who observe the jurisprudential law and wear it under compulsion. In other words, the observant veiled women (in a non-scientific comparison but based on field observations) represent a small minority in the Iranian capital compared to the non-veiled women (parts one and two).
The results of a government survey on women who do not wear the compulsory veil (published in June 28) show that most Tehran women believe that “wearing the veil is not an order of God.”
According to the findings of the “TIAM” Center for Cultural Research affiliated with the Baqir Al-Uloom Institute for Islamic Studies, more than half of those who answered the study’s questions decided “not to wear the veil.” The results of the study show that 70% of the husbands of women who do not wear the Hijab agree with their wives.
The results of another (non-governmental) survey show that the government’s pressures and threats against women’s freedom to dress “have no effect”.
85% of the participants in the “Radio Zamaneh” center’s survey confirmed that they believe the developments of the past ten months have made the issue of refusing compulsory veiling one of the main demands of the people. Most survey respondents estimate that more than 60% of the general public oppose compulsory veiling. More than 90% said that they believe the government’s motive for introducing the “Veil and Chastity Law” is to “create an atmosphere of terror” among women. More than 70% considered government threats and actions against women “ineffective”.
In conclusion, it seems that the two parties, the government and the opposition, have come to consider the hijab as the main title of the conflict between them, while the rest of the conflict’s political, social, economic, livelihood, intellectual and even security issues are covered under this title. The challenge of the continuation or non-continuity of the ideology of religious rule was covered under the title “The Conflict Over Compulsory Veiling”. That is, the insistence on removing the veil, the role of the non-veiled woman in this context, and the man standing by her side, now constitutes a direct threat to the regime of the Islamic Republic in its strict jurisprudential formula based on the centralization of the rule of the Guardian Jurist.
- Fakhar Sultan is a Kuwait wrier