Long hair for males was seen as an anti-establishment symbol in the hippie era of the 60’s and now women in Iran are using their hair as a protest against a strictly enforced Hijab law.
Women in the Shiite lead middle eastern country, since 1979, have been forced by law to cover their hair in public with a Hijab, a head covering scarf or shawl.
But now London based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad has begun a passive and silent on-line protest against that law.
She has started a Facebook page where Iranian women are posting photos of themselves showing their hair, and not wearing Hijabs.
She began the anti-Hijab campaign by posting two photos of herself – one wearing a Hijab and the other bare-headed. The postings set off a flood of support and similar posting of from both young and middle aged women, accompanied by text expressing their feeling about the Hijab rule.
The Facebook page received 500,000 likes within a month.
Esmail-Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the Head of Iran’s National Security Forces, said in 2014 Iran’s Morality police found 3.6 million women guilty of wearing ‘inappropriate’ dresses.
All were warned, and many fined and arrested and even flogged.
“It is clear from the response that Iranian women wanted to express themselves and voice their opposition to the compulsory hijab,” said Alinejad who is being labelled an anti-revolutionary by the State controlled Iranian media. She and her Facebook campaign have been condemned and criticized by prayer leaders in Tehran, Iran’s capital.
“The hijab is about control,” Alinejad said. “And the Iranian regime would never want to lose control”.
Alinejad was forced to leave Iran for her anti-Government reporting during the contentious 2009 elections. She said that while a journalist in Iran, she she had been imprisoned, physically abused and was the victim of smear campaigns.
She said if she ever returned to Iran under the present regime, she would be jailed.
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