Iranian police said on Thursday that 29 women had been arrested for protesting the country's compulsory hijab rules, the private Tasnim news agency reported. Tasnim has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and aims to defend "the Islamic Republic against negative media propaganda."
Iran's Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, requires women to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes in public. Six other women were also reportedly taken into custody this week.
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A growing number of women in Iran have been removing their hijabs and waving them on a stick to protest the Iranian law.
Several images and videos of the demonstrations have gone viral on social media. The protests have coincided with demonstrations against economic conditions in eastern Iran. Some have called for the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step down.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has not addressed the headscarf protest as of yet, but has said that the government needs to listen to the population better.
"We can't get anything done if we don't have the people behind us and ignore their criticisms," Rouhani said.
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The hijab-waving demonstration is part of a campaign started by exiled Iranian journalist Misah Alinejad, who one year ago encouraged women to post images and videos of themselves on social media with the hashtag #whitewednesdays.
The trend picked up momentum after videos and images were posted online in late December of a woman who was arrested for waving her hijab on a street corner in Tehran.
"We are fighting against the most visible symbol of oppression," said Alinejad, who also hosts the website My Stealthy Freedom. "These women are saying 'It is enough — it is the 21st century and we want to be our true selves.'"
Police in Iran seemed to take an indirect shot at Alinejad's campaign on Thursday, saying the 29 arrested women were "tricked" into removing their hijabs by a propaganda campaign spread by Iranians living abroad, the private news agency Tasnim reported.
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Gaelenmyr on February 2nd, 2018 at 14:44 UTC »
I'm proud of these women. I'm a woman from Turkey, and the religious oppression is increasing each year here.
Edit: Not everyone in Turkey are religious or practising. In fact, many young people are questioning their beliefs. But we cannot overlook the problems Islam and Arabic culture has created over decades. Muslim Turks have been glorifying Arab culture in a bad way and Middle East culture is more than Islam.
lotnia on February 2nd, 2018 at 13:12 UTC »
And just recently, the was a report saying that the Iranian police announced they won't arrest women anymore for refusing to wear hijab. Seems the police itself is conflicted about that?
BustlingBee on February 2nd, 2018 at 11:24 UTC »
It'll be the major social issue to cause drama in Iran within the next 5 years I reckon. I've visited the country since 2000 and every time things change so much. Last year I noticed a lot of women just not wearing hijabs at all having picnics in parks and dining in restaurants. This would have still been unthinkable a few years ago. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those things that begins with a trickle and turns into a flood. Some tourist site managers mentioned to me they have issues with young Iranian women not wearing hijabs for their instagram photos, and they have to ask the girls to wear the hijab because they don't want authorities visiting their businesses. The authorities supposedly look through Instagram etc