Bookmark This!

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike Connotea del.icio.us

Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Friendsite folkd.com Furl Google

Jamespot Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinkedIn Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace Netvouz Newsvine

oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Surphace Sphinn Spurl

Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

  Link HTML: 

 Permalink: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed or Email Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »

By Masih Alinejad

December 13, 2009

You surely heard about their recent petty affair. They have become so petty that they think publishing a picture of Majid Tavakoli, member of Polytechnic University Islamic Association, with women clothing means humiliating him and if they associate him with Bani Sadr and other fake stories of those who ran away with women clothing (1), they can demobilize and demoralize the movement.

I am sure you have heard about this other story too:

A Japanese man lived in Tehran in the early years of revolution and he once went to a restaurant with his wife. It was there that they asked his wife to wear a scarf and gave them a scarf for that purpose. The Japanese man asked for a scarf and then wore it himself. When restaurant waitresses explained that only women have to wear the hijab and not the men, he answered: “If my wife is to do something without wanting it, I see it as my duty to accompany her.”

I don’t care about the validity of any of these two narratives. I have no doubt that the proponents of the protest movement in Iran and harbingers of freedom know very well what has humiliated Majid Tavakoli.  It is not the women clothing, but the act of it being forced on him and publishing of the photos in an attempt to humiliate him, which is not new.

There are many Iranian women who hold no belief in the hijab or forced clothing.  For years they had to wear a headscarf and sometimes chador (a long garment that covers all of the body and sometimes large parts of the face- translator’s note).

That is why I think the story of our dear Majdi Tavakoli is a story of humiliation for a number of women in my land. We should laugh at those who out of ignorance and simple-mindedness slander their own values. At the same time we should be sad for those who actually believe in the absurd show of mandatory hijab in Iran, they too have been humiliated for years.

The cruelty of those men, who published these photos to remind us that forcing headscarf and chador on men or women is so ugly and deplorable that it should be subject to photos and news; it makes me laugh.

Another point: If we again assume that coup-stagers’ news is true and the student ran away out of fear, why should one be proud of this fear when a government publicly demonstrates the fear of its nation?

Just like the chief of coup ‘etat who proudly declared: Kahrizak doctor committed suicide out of the fear of being arrested (2). What happens in the prison and detention that fear of it leads to suicide? I am amazed that this is not enough reason of shame for a sick system not to loudly declare its own scandal so simplemindedly and not to publish its photos and news.

This is like saying: Oh, Everybody! Come and see how beautiful the Islamic Republic is. This is where students and doctors are afraid from the law and prefer to die and run away but not to deal with ferocious and murderous interrogators of detention centers.

So, instead of being demoralized by Majid’s story, we should be proud of him for he has led coup stagers into two traps to loudly reveal their scandal.

One: Forcing scarf and chador is ugly and ridiculous.
Two: Law and the ruling atmosphere are so fearful that a student has to run away with women clothing (assuming the news is true).

Now, let us imagine that part of the male protesters decide to do what the Japanese man did to defend those women who are forced to wear hijab. What would the government news agencies do when faced with a population that laughs at them and men who wear scarf and chador in a symbolic move? I know that because of the fundamental patriarchic thinking, such an initiative is not expectable from Iranian men but would the news agents of coup government proudly publish photos that ridicules Islamic clothing? Their job, their laugh.

1) Abolhassan Bani Sadr was the first president of the Islamic Republic. He was outside mullah’s circles and was thus impeached by the Islamic parliament. He then, regime claimed, ran away from Iran while wearing women clothing – Translator’s note.

2) Kahrizak is a detention centre where a lot of protesters in the wake of anti-government demonstrations in June and July 2009 were reportedly tortured and raped. It was consequently closed down by the order of Khamenei himself – Translator’s note.

Translated to English by Reza Eshteraki