The unrest caused in the Islamic Republic Of Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s conservative dress code has emerged as yet another wave of protest the country has witnessed over the past decade.
But the fact that the protest is led by young Iranians and supported by members of all classes, races, and social statuses has made it a widespread movement in the country and now across the globe. The protest is not just against the injustice faced by the present generation of Iranians but against injustices faced by their ancestors.
Iran mandates the wearing of headscarves for women, a restriction it officially enshrined into the law in 1983. This is one of the most controversial restrictions imposed on women in Iran while the women still face other draconian restrictions on marriage, divorce, child custody, etc.
The veil has long served as a reminder of the Iran’s power and control over the lives of the women in Iran and is looked upon not just as a symbol of religious identity but also a battle over national identity.
The years of repression, discrimination, and injustice faced by women, it has now led to widespread defiance of the regime in the form of women taking over the street fiercely demanding an end to the Hijab, burning their veils, and publicly shingling their hair in protest.
As the determined Iranians take on the streets against the theocratic leadership and chant “death to the dictator” and “we didn’t have our people killed to compromise”, this wave of protest in Iran signals a revolution and a possible end of the theocratic regime.
But above all the death of Mhasa Amini and 16-year-old Nika Shakarami highlights the fact that even in the 21st century, after the years of feminist protests, women still find themselves under the control of external, male voices dominated by what they call “modesty”.
This is a mockery to all the sacrifices made by women till date and a question as to how many more women will have to sacrifice their lives for things that they should have as a birth right?
In a world where people boast about their policies for social inclusion and equality towards women, restricting them to practice right over their own body does not count as freedom.
no laws, protests or sanctions can be successful in achieving equality until people are liberated from the shackles of religious identity, that has stolen their sense of individuality and their sense of right or wrong.
As far as the leadership is concerned, the supreme leader and other authorities have once again resorted to their old and successful tactics of arrests, internet shutdowns, and killing their people with certainly the best weapon “blame game”, by blaming the protests on ‘foreign enemies’ (the West).
But it’s high time that they realise that these tactics might have worked in the past and may work this time as well by shutting a few voices and creating fear.
Still, they are already facing the uncertainty of their power and lack of trust from their people that might backfire on their ideologies especially when they face Gen Z’s modernistic approach towards life.
As the future awaits, the only question that prevails is “until when will the so-called leaders sacrifice the lives of innocent people in the name of national security and saving the culture”.
For the world to move ahead peacefully, it is the right time that we part ways with conservative mindsets that fail to comply and move on with the changing world and jeopardise the future by imposing their versions of religious identities on people causing the death and lives of innocent humans.