After Mahsa Amini’s death Women in Iran are going without hijabs

On the streets of Iranian cities, it is becoming more normal to witness a woman passing by without an obligatory headscarf, or hijab, as the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini‘s death and the enormous protests it caused approaches.

DUBAI, UAE — As the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death and the subsequent public demonstrations approaches, it is becoming more usual to witness a lady walking down the street without an obligatory headscarf, or hijab.

There is no government official or study that acknowledges the phenomena, which began as Iran’s overworked electrical infrastructure had frequent power outages throughout the scorching summer months. However, in videos posted on social media of people shooting neighborhood streets or simply talking about their daily lives, ladies and girls may be seen passing past with their long hair hanging over their shoulders, especially after dusk.

This resistance comes despite what United Nations investigators characterize as Iran’s theocracy’s “expanded repressive measures and policies” to punish them — despite the fact that no recent catalytic incident, such as Amini’s killing, has galvanized demonstrators.

Masoud Pezeshkian, the country’s new reformist president, campaigned on the promise to put an end to morality police harassment of women. However, the 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei maintains the country’s ultimate authority, having previously stated that “unveiling is both religiously and politically forbidden.”

For some faithful Muslim women, the head covering represents piety before God and modesty in the presence of males outside their families. In Iran, the hijab — and the all-encompassing black chador worn by women — has long served as a political symbol.

“Meaningful institutional changes and accountability for gross human rights violations and crimes under international law, and crimes against humanity, remains elusive for victims and survivors, especially for women and children,” cautioned a United Nations fact-finding committee investigating Iran on Friday.

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Amini, 22, died in a hospital on September 16, 2022, after being arrested by the country’s morality police for reportedly not wearing her hijab appropriately. The protests that followed Amini’s death began with the shout “Women, Life, and Freedom.” However, the demonstrators’ screams quickly escalated into open calls to revolt against Khamenei.

Following a months-long security operation, more than 500 individuals were slain and over 22,000 were arrested.

Passers-by on Tehran’s streets, whether in the affluent northern suburbs or the working-class regions in the capital’s south, now commonly witness women without the hijab. It often begins around dark, although on weekends, women can be seen with their hair uncovered in big parks.

Women without the hijab appear in online films, notably a sub-genre showcasing walking tours of city streets for individuals in rural areas or abroad interested in seeing life in Tehran’s bustling neighborhoods.

Something that would have stopped people in their tracks in the decades following the 1979 Islamic Revolution is now unacknowledged.

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“My quasi-courage for not wearing scarves is a legacy of Mahsa Amini, and we have to protect this as an achievement,” said a 25-year-old student at Tehran Sharif University who supplied only her first name, Azadeh, for fear of repercussions. “She could be at my current age if she did not pass away.”

Disobedience still carries risk. Months after the protests ended, Iranian morality police returned to the streets.

Since then, there have been sporadic films of officers roughing up women and young girls. In 2023, a teenage Iranian girl was hurt in a mystery incident on Tehran’s Metro while wearing no headscarf and died in the hospital. In July, protestors said police opened fire on a lady fleeing a checkpoint in an attempt to avoid having her car seized for not wearing the hijab.

Meanwhile, the government has targeted private establishments when women are spotted without headscarves. Surveillance cameras look for women uncovered in automobiles and fine and impound them. The government has gone so far as to utilize overhead drones to search for uncovered women at the 2024 Tehran International Book Fair and Kish Island, according to the United Nations.

However, some believe that Pezeshkian’s election in July, following the death of Iranian hardline President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May, is helping to reduce tensions over the hijab.

“I think the current peaceful environment is part of the status after Pezeshkian took office,” said Hamid Zarrinjouei, a 38-year-old bookstore owner. “In some way, Pezeshkian could convince powerful people that more restrictions do not necessarily make women more faithful to the hijab.”

On Wednesday, Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Movahedi Azad urged security forces against engaging in physical altercations over the hijab.

“We prosecuted violators, and we will,” Movahedi Azad remarked, according to Iranian media. “Nobody has right to have improper attitude even though an individual commits an offense.”

While the government is not explicitly addressing the rise in the number of women who do not wear hijabs, there are other evidence that the political landscape has changed. In August, officials fired a university teacher a day after he appeared on state television and disparaged Amini as having “croaked.”

Meanwhile, the pre-reform weekly Ham Mihan reported in August on an unpublished study performed under the supervision of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which revealed that the hijab had become one of the country’s most critical problems – something it had not seen before.