Just a few months ago , on the 13th of September,
Mahsa Amini and her family,
were travelling from the Kurdistan region to the Iranian capital Tehran.
To visit their relatives.
It was evening when they were stopped on their way by the police.
But this wasn't the common police.
They were the Morality Police.
The thing is, Iran has a special police force
to check whether women are properly dressing up or not.
Iran has strict dress codes for women.
As per this, they have to compulsorily wear headscarves or hijab in public.
The dress codes are so strict, that the hijab can't be worn normally,
they have to be tied tightly to cover the hair entirely.
If a woman in a public place doesn't wear the hijab properly,
the morality police have been deployed to enforce the dress code.
Can you imagine that the sole purpose of the entire police force
is to check whether the women are dressing up according to the rules or not?
Women are treated as toddlers.
Back to our story, Mahsa Amini and her family were stopped by the morality police,
And apparently, Amini wasn't wearing her hijab properly.
According to her family, the police dragged her out of the car,
and puts her in the police vehicle.
Her brother Kiarash tried to intervene,
to talk to the police,
but the police responded by saying that
his sister was to be taken to the police station for a 1-hour re-education class.
Amini's family told this to the human rights activists,
according to the IranWire media website.
Then she was taken to the detention centre
and her brother was also present during the interrogation.
According to the local media reports,
Amini's brother claims that he heard screams from inside.
He was waiting outside the room
when he spotted an ambulance arriving.
Amini was secretly taken to the Kasra Hospital.
Police say that Amini suffered from a heart attack.
The interesting thing to note here is that
Amini was a 22-year-old, healthy woman.
How many times have you heard
of a 22-year-old healthy woman suffering from a heart attack?
Her brother Kiarash was told that she was in a coma,
2 days later, on 15th September, Tehran police
issued an official statement.
Saying that after Amini's arrest, she suffered a heart attack.
Her brother claims that it was only 2 hours
between her arrest and being taken to the hospital.
In the hospital, Amini was in a coma,
and the next day, on 16th September, unfortunately, she passed away.
At only 22 years old.
This one incident rocked the country.
As eyewitnesses present there told the journalists,
Amini was beaten up inside the police van.
Amini's father, Amjad Amini said in an interview
that he's sure his daughter was beaten.
On the other hand, Iran's government rejects these accusations.
Iran's Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi,
claims that Amini had prior illnesses,
and since morality police do not carry weapons,
they couldn't have beaten her.
But then a group of hacker activists,
as in hackers that are engaged in activism,
leak some medical documents to the media outlet Iran International.
It shows the CT Scan of her skull.
Bone fracture, haemorrhage, and brain oedema.
On 17th September, a source from the hospital revealed
to the Iranian media outlet,
that looking at her brain tissue, it was clear that
Amini suffered repeated blows to the head.
When Amini's CT Scans spread across media and the masses,
this stirs up huge debates.
Government supporters claim that the CT Scan shows
Amini had previously gone through a brain operation.
Critics claim that the CT Scans clearly show that she was beaten.
Then came a brave doctor.
Dr Hossein Karampour.
He is a top medical officer in the Southern Province of Iran.
He published photos of Amini from when she was admitted to the hospital.
She is seen bleeding in it.
He says that symptoms clearly show that
it wasn't a heart attack.
Rather, she was beaten.
Dr Hossein wrote a letter to Mohammad Raeiszadeh.
The President of the Iranian Medical Council.
Asking him to speak the truth.
Karampour asked the president of the
Iranian Medical Council to "act honestly and courageously to clarify and reveal the truth" and stand by the people.
Seeing this happen, the government then released CCTV footage.
This CCTV footage shows a young woman falling to the ground,
in the police station.
This CCTV footage is sent to the Iranian media channels.
Authorities claim that the woman in the CCTV footage is Mahsa Amini.
And that you can see her collapse due to heart failure.
But Amini's father claims that this video is false.
He demanded that the police
since there were so many other cameras as well,
there was a camera in the police courtyard,
and cameras in the van,
he demanded that they show the footage of those cameras.
The police didn't respond to the demand.
The protests started getting bigger.
At this point, Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi,
extended his condolences to Mahsa's family.
By talking to them over a phone call.
This was on 18th of September.
He assured them that there'd be a proper investigation into the incident,
and the truth will be revealed.
By this point in time, this issue had spread internationally.
Statements came in from the United Nations.
Nada Al-Nashif, the present United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
said that Mahsa Amini's death
should be investigated by an independent competent authority.
She spoke out against the hijab law.
And says that authorities should stop targetting women.
America issued statements as well.
Amnesty International, an international human rights NGO,
demands an investigation into the incident.
The protests had begun the day Amini was hospitalised.
But with the spread of the news on social media
the spread of the videos,
the protests started spreading to other cities as well.
Many other women came out and claimed that it had happened to them as well.
That the morality police dragged them and beat them up.
And insults them.
There were several other videos on the social media
uploaded by women showing how they were treated
or rather mistreated by the morality police.
There were viral videos of women standing in public and chopping off their hair,
with protestors cheering in the background.
Many women took off their hijabs in public and set them on fire.
Slogans of 'Death to the Dictator' was chanted.
And of 'Woman Life Freedom'.
Soon the protests turned violent.
Authorities used tear gas and lethal force.
Many people were killed in the police firing.
More than 100 were injured.
More than 500 people were arrested.
In retaliation to this, an anonymous hacker group
hacked two government websites in Iran.
They released a video stating that the violence against women in Iran
has been happening for many years.
Mahsa Amini is the latest victim of the Iranian State.
Of the so-called, Morality Police.
Celebrities come out in support as well.
Famous Iranian footballer, Ali Karimi,
posted a photo in favour of Mahsa Amini.
Here, it is important to get into the history,
because hijab wasn't always compulsory in Iran.
Specifically, this wasn't the case before the year 1979.
In 1979, an Islamic rebellion was seen in Iran.
Before that, Iran was ruled by Mohammad Reza.
He was a foreign-educated, secular man with a modern outlook.
He took several steps in favour of freedom.
Such as banning polygamy,
raising the minimum marriage age to 18 years.
During his rule, there was industrialisation and economic development.
But this changed in 1979.
After this revolution, in March 1979, a new law was passed
that women would have to cover their heads in workplaces.
After this, thousands of women were protesting on the streets,
chanting that aim of the revolution wasn't to move backwards.
But the situation worsened.
In 1981, a mandatory hijab law was passed in Iran.
Article 638 of the law states
it was an offence for women to go into public without wearing a hijab.
Additionally, the previous laws banning polygamy,
and raising the legal age of marriage to 18,
were also abolished.
Recently, Iran's President, Ebrahim Raisi,
on 5th July had passed a law
adding new restrictions to the existing hijab law.
Additionally, the government said that some women weren't wearing the hijab properly,
so a crackdown on improper hijab had also begun.
For this, the Morality Police were used.
The government said that women aren't allowed to wear high heels and stockings either.
And women had to mandatorily cover their necks and shoulders.
Interestingly friends, from 1979 till today,
there have been many protests by women against hijab.
In 2006, women activists ran a campaign
One Million Signatures for the repeal of
all discriminatory laws against women in Iran.
After this in 2014,
there was a campaign where Iranian women
shared photos and videos of themselves publicly violating hijab laws.
This was an online protest campaign known as My Stealthy Freedom.
This inspired several other movements.
White Wednesdays,
Girls of Revolution Street.
As I've always said in previous blog
Such large-scale protests do not happen for a standalone incident.
This one event,
was the trigger point.
Seeing this happen, women had enough.
They had reached their tolerance limit.
A woman had died because of the hijab laws.
They couldn't tolerate it anymore.
But there have been previous anti-hijab protests in Iran.
12th July is marked as National Hijab Day in Iran.
There were widespread protests in the country that day too.
Wherein women used social media to show how
they were taking off their hijab in public.
Over the years, several prominent figures were jailed due to these protests.
Many were arrested.
Such as Farhad Meysami, a medical doctor and activist.
He's been in jail since August 2018,
he was imprisoned for 6 years for supporting women.
Against the hijab law.
At the beginning of this month, about 300 Anti-Hijab Ringleaders
had been arrested according to an Iranian official.
This hijab controversy would remind you of another incident.
One that was recently seen in India.
The hijab controversy in India.
Karnataka banned Muslim students from wearing a hijab in educational institutions.
Karnataka High Court upheld the ban,
after which this was listed in the Supreme Court,
the hearing went on for some time,
and the Supreme Court has now reserved its order.
At first glance, it might seem that these cases are contradictory.
On one hand, there are women demanding the right to wear a hijab.
They want to wear a hijab.
They are fighting to wear a hijab.
On the other hand, Iranian women do not want to wear a hijab.
They are fighting against the hijab.
But if you dig into these problems,
you'd see that both these issues are the same.
In several countries, various people and government
are trying to dictate what people may or may not wear.
And women simply want freedom.
The Freedom of Choice.
If they want to wear a hijab, they should be free to do so,
If they do not want to wear a hijab, they should be free to do so.
And it is interesting to note that
women are the ones who suffer the most under such laws.
For example, if we talk about men in India,
the restrictions according to Indian laws
on what a man can wear and what not,
are simply covered under the anti-obscenity clause.
Sections 292, 293, and 294 of the IPC.
These sections were cited in a case against Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh
when he posed nude for a magazine.
The complaint against him basically said that
he can wear whatever he wants to,
but he needs to wear something.
But when it comes to girls and women,
there are so many laws and restrictions
that aren't there for men.
Starting from parents, relatives, and society.
People tell women not to wear knickers.
"No short skirts in college, please."
But wear suits and salwars.
And take a dupatta over your chest.
Female teachers are told not to wear jeans.
In some private schools,
teachers are prohibited from wearing salwar-kameez as well.
That's also 'inappropriate'.
Teachers are told to wear saris only.
Apart from these, orders are issued by panchayats,
that girls may not wear jeans.
In such cases, you would think that our lawmakers,
the politicians would ensure women's freedom.
But they don't.
They make similar statements.
Even up to the position of the Chief Minister,
such statements are made
condemning women wearing ripped jeans.
Questioning the values they impart to their children.
This reminds me of a quote by Babasaheb Ambedkar.
The level of progress in a society or country,
can be checked by seeing
the level of women in that society or country.
The female members of Parliament,
the female politicians are also trolled for this.
For wearing shirts and pants.
For millions of women in India, jeans is farfetched.
they are told to cover their faces
with a burqa or a ghoonghat as veils.
In the name of tradition.
Again, it is interesting to note that
this isn't done to boys and men.
Have you ever heard of a village where boys are told
to wear kurta-pajama exclusively?
That they can be in public only when they wear kurta-pajama.
Or dhoti-kurta.
Since it is their tradition.
For men, they can wear whatever they want to.
Jeans, boxers, knickers, t-shirts, or anything they want to.
The entire burden to maintain tradition and culture
falls upon the shoulders of girls and women.
College principals issue orders
banning girls from wearing jeans,
to maintain the decency of the institution.
But when some women want to cover their heads with a hijab,
they say that they do not want that either.
That it is too decent.
Another interesting thing here is that
though women are told to look cultured, decent, and well-mannered.
But in some conditions and situations,
they are told the exact opposite.
Women should look "hot".
There have been cases where female news anchors are told
to wear short, tight-fitting dresses.
Several airlines have the same rules for female air hostesses.
Air hostesses are told to wear heels always.
To put on makeup.
This is so common that when
airlines like Virgin Atlantic and British Airways stopped it,
this made the news.
There are international sports tournaments
such as beach volleyball, that men can play in shorts and t-shirts,
but female players are forced to wear bikinis.
Getting back to the hijab issue.
As I told you in the previous video on hijab,
there is another perspective here.
Hijab, pallu, niqab, burqa, or ghoonghat,
are said to be the residues of patriarchal society.
Often women wear these not because they want to.
Rather, they are forced by society into wearing these.
Girls are conditioned by saying that if they do not wear a hijab,
they aren't good girls.
In such a case, what is the solution?
Is it to issue an edict banning hijab?
It is not.
Research and surveys suggest that
when women are given access to education,
they choose their options with their freedom.
The simple logic is that,
if women are educated, they can't be forced into wearing a hijab.
But don't use hijab to prevent her from getting an education.
As always, it is important to acknowledge that,
there are several well-educated women who choose to wear a hijab.
And that's equally correct.
Because women should be given that choice.
They should be given the Freedom of Choice.
But if she is a Muslim woman then she should wear hijab because it is written in their religion that if she believes in her religion then she should wear it. Women should remain covered anyway because they are very precious. For example, if you take a chocolate wrapped in paper and one without paper, the fly sits on the chocolate without paper.
This is my opinion.
What do you think?
You can comment below and let me know.
How will the protests shape up to be after Mahsa Amini's death?
What will change in Iran?
Only time will tell.
I hope that you liked the blog.
And let's meet in the next blog.
Thank you very much!😊🙏
(NASIR AZMI )
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