Earlier this month 29 people were arrested in Tehran, Iran after a protest against the law requiring women to wear hijabs/headscarves in public places. According to TheGuardian, "Women across the country have been protesting by climbing onto telecom boxes, taking off their headscarves and waving them aloft on sticks."
A female member of the Iranian parliament, Soheila Jolodarzadeh, told The Guardian that these protests were the effect of longtime restrictions. "They're happening because of our wrong approach," she stated. Women protesting against being forced to wear veils, hijabs, headscarves, and other clothing that is designed to cover their faces and bodies is definitely something that is not new.
Women protesting for their right to be able to not have to wear headscarves has been going on for years.
However, this specific protest along with the others that have recently occurred was most likely started because of the activist Vida Movahedi. According to the LaTimes, "Movahedi removed her headscarf in public to protest the theocracy's Islamic dress code..." Many women are following in her footsteps and they are risking arrest by discarding their headscarves in public for all to see. Even some men are getting in on the protest, and are serving as voices against the law that is aimed at women.
All of the protesting and activism isn't just taking place in Iran, but in the United States as well.
According to the NYTimes, Masih Alinejad, who has a show on the Voice of America's Persian-language satellite channel and is also an activist located in the United States, has created a day for participating women in Iran to wear all white and to publicly remove their veils. On "White Wednesdays" women can "...protest the compulsory hijab and other religious restrictions imposed on women."
No human being should be forced to do, say, or wear something they don't want to.
Every government should remember that if it weren't for its people, it would not exist. This being so, laws should not be created to suppress its people. Creating laws that prevent anyone from having equal rights because of their gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. goes against basic human rights every person is given immediately after birth!
I am proud of these women. They will not give up until they are able to have a say in what they want and do not want to wear. A woman has a say in what goes on her body as much as a man does. Governments need to realize that they need to respect women because they can easily crumble without us.