Iran women boycott Hijab, take streets & call it ‘movement’

As the Iranian women take the centre stage against the system, the waves of the boycott have knocked the shore of the country at large.

A massive trend is taking over Iran and the women are not just speaking about it, but removing the hijab in open markets and in broad daylight. With this, social media is shaken by the storm and some users on the internet are naming ‘third world order'.

According to reports by a media outlet in Iran, Government and military officials in Iran have warned the population about disobeying hijab rules, one day after many women took off their headscarves in public. The interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, warned women that the government’s fearsome Special Unit will deal with those “breaking rules” and will not allow people to “intentionally cooperate with the enemy.” As per the reports, The act of civil disobedience on July 12 was called by women’s rights and civic activists as authorities in recent weeks increased harassment of women in the streets for “improper hijab”. Patrols and checkpoints by the so called ‘morality police’ were highly visible in large cities.

Government agents in charge of “vice and virtue” stopped women and detained them in special police vans for questioning, warnings, and even detention. But on Tuesday large numbers of Iranian women defied forced hijab rules and came out without headscarves and in some cases dressed in attire common in most countries, such as trendy jeans and T-shirts forbidden by the Islamic Republic. No major incidents were reported as women defied the rules, probably because the government did not want to create further tensions on that particular day, which would project the picture of a successful act of civil disobedience. But official threats rang out before the day was over and on Wednesday.

The representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the religious city of Qom demanded decisive action against opponents of the hijab. The army’s ideological-political commissar said, “Hijab is our first line of defense. If it falls, all other bulwarks will fall.”

(inputs from Iran Intl)