Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Throwing to the winds the Sharia’h law, hundreds of Iranian women cut off their hair and burned hijab (veil) protesting against the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody for ‘improper dressing’, the media reported on Monday.
Under the Shari’ah or Islamic law, Muslim women must cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting, tent-like clothes covering them from tip to toe.
Spontaneous protests of women broke out in Tehran on Saturday and Sunday after the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in which they saw Iranian women cutting off their hair, removing hijabs, and burning them.
Iran’s “morality police” had arrested Mahsa for “improperly” donning the hijab because she had not completely covered her hair.
After her arrest in Tehran last week, she slipped into a coma and died on Friday, putting a spotlight on women’s plight and rights in Iran. Police rejected social media suspicions that she was beaten, and claimed she fell ill as she waited with other detained women.
Several videos became viral, showing demonstrators shouting anti-government slogans, and Iranian forces using tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Opposing severe Iranian rules requiring women over the age of seven to wear religious headscarves, many women protesters chopped off their hair and burned their hijabs.
Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad tweeted a video and said, “Iranian women show their anger by cutting their hair and burning their hijab to protest against the killing of #Mahsa_Amini by hijab police. From the age of 7, if we don’t cover our hair, we won’t be able to go to school or get a job. We are fed up with this gender apartheid regime.”
In another tweet, he said, “This is the real Iran. Security forces in Iran’s Saqqez opened fire at peaceful protesters following the burial of #Mahsa_Amini. Several protesters have been injured. First Hijab police killed a 22 Yr old girl and now using guns and tear gas against grieving people.”
Social media activists circulated videos of women removing their hijabs and receiving what appeared to be a harsh punishment from morality police units.
Offenders of the hijab law face public rebuke, fines, or arrest. But in recent months activists have urged women to remove veils despite the hardline rulers’ crackdown on “immoral behavior”.