Iran Hijab Protest Quotes

as in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where large numbers of women turned out during the June 2009 post-election demonstrations. Clearly, these women’s grievances went far beyond a single rigged election. One explained, “I see lots of girls and women in these demonstrations. They are all angry, ready to explode, scream out and let the world hear their voice. I want the world to know that as a woman in this country, I have no freedom.” This was not surprising, since Iranian law was formulated in scrupulous adherence to the Koran and Islamic tradition and law. Even the Ayatollah Khomeini’s granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, declared that under Islamic law, “a woman is there to fill her husband’s stomach and raise children.” And just weeks after President Barack Obama defended the right of women in non-Muslim countries to cover their heads, brave Iranian women were throwing off their head coverings as a sign of protest against the Islamic regime—with no peep of support from Obama. Journalist Azadeh Moaveni, author of the feminist book Lipstick Jihad, noted that “while it’s not at the top of women’s grievances, the hijab is symbolic. Taking it off is like waving a red flag. Women are saying they are a force to be reckoned with.”10

By painting the suffering of the Iranian people as a rage against Islam the Western media is not only misrepresenting these brave protests but demeaning them.

In one, thousands of young high school students look forward with angry eyes. In another, women tied their hands together as a sign of solidarity. One photo attracted more attention than others. In it, Golestan captured a woman standing on top of a car wearing a flowy cape and facing a mullah, or Islamic clergyman, in front of her. Her finger is raised in a sign of warning, and her mouth is half open, seemingly mid-shout. That woman became known as the Joan of Arc of Moshtagh Street, named after the woman fighter who was honored as a defender of the French nation. Journalists and women’s rights activists found her, but instead of the iconic woman in the protest picture, they encountered a woman who doesn’t remember much of that day. She was Maliheh Nikjoumand, an actress who had to wear a hijab to act in TV series after the revolution.