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Fighting Iran's dress code for women with a hashtag

Fighting Iran's dress code for women with a hashtag

The #WhiteWednesdays movement aims to campaign against obligatory wearing of hijab
28 Jun, 2017

Before she begins her Wednesday morning, Iranian activist Masih Alinejad spends hours sifting through scores of videos and photos sent to her of women in Iran wearing white headscarves or white clothing as part of a growing online protest.

To campaign against the obligatory wearing of headscarves - or hijabs - Alinejad, last month, encouraged women to take videos or photos of themselves wearing white and upload them on social media with the hashtag #WhiteWednesdays.

"My goal is just empowering women and giving them a voice. If the government and the rest of the world hear the voice of these brave women then they have to recognize them," Alinejad told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Under Iran's Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes for the sake of modesty. Violators are publicly admonished, fined or arrested.

Although no official records have been collected, a report by campaign group Justice for Iran in 2014 found over 10 years nearly half a million women were cautioned and more than 30,000 women arrested in cities across Iran over the hijab law.

The #WhiteWednesdays campaign is part of a larger online movement started three years ago by Alinejad, a journalist who has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009. She has received death threats since her campaigning started.

She created social media platforms and a website called My Stealthy Freedom where women in Iran take photos of themselves without hijabs to oppose Iran's dress code.

The 40-year-old activist wanted to raise the visibility of her online movement so women could identify each other in the streets of Iran by wearing white, "the color of peace".

"I want people to talk. I want people to have a platform and talk together because having a free conversation is something Iranian society needs," said Alinejad, who now lives in New York.

Some of the videos, which are subtitled by volunteers, have several hundred shares on the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook page that has more than a million followers.

Some Iranian men have taken part in the campaign, and Alinejad also invites Iranian women who wear the hijab willingly to join as well - emphasizing that the campaign is not against hijabs, but being forced to wear them.

Alinejad said she doesn't consider herself courageous - unlike the Iranian citizens before the lens.

"They are more brave...Honestly, these are the leaders and I am following them," she said.

Comments

SATT Jun 28, 2017 06:38pm
Commendable Idea.
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HUMMING Jun 28, 2017 06:55pm
You have to realistic in your dressing sense.
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Balaji Jun 28, 2017 07:51pm
Following a religion is upto oneself. Don't politicise it.
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SQ Jun 28, 2017 08:00pm
Brave indeed. More power to these women! Enforcing dress code on people is against human rights. Muslim women all over the world should join this fight for their very basic right to choose their own attire.
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shak Jun 28, 2017 09:04pm
Go ahead dont wait for someone to rule your mind,
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Hamed Quraishi Jun 28, 2017 09:11pm
I think Shalwar,Kameez, Dupatta is the best dress for ladies. It is elegant and caters for modesty.
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Umhua Jun 28, 2017 09:28pm
It is not the 6 the century . nothing can be forced on people .
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Ukz Jun 28, 2017 09:47pm
Without reading the headlines just by watching at the picture I concluded that these are Iranian women and confirmed it when read headline. Their current outlook gives them a distinct identity that is elegant and modest at the same time. I don't know why they are insisting on polluting this elegant outlook with western one.
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Joe Jun 28, 2017 10:37pm
Why is this dress code only applicable for women? Men are God's own I suppose.
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AJ Jun 28, 2017 10:38pm
Someday these women will start protesting to walk without clothes. Its just beginning
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Alba Jun 29, 2017 12:40am
Pink Mondays. Yellow Tuesdays. White Wednesdays. Green Thursdays. Blue Fridays.
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Kinza Jun 29, 2017 03:32am
I've met a lot of Iranians in my life so far and to be honest their the most liberal 'Muslims' I know. Religion is kind of really enforced there, so they don't like that aspect of their country where your forced to dress, act or behave a certain way and they also don't like their country being alienated from others.
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Sufi sahib Jun 29, 2017 07:00am
There is nothing wrong with wearing Hijab and loose clothes. It gives a modest and great look.
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Muhammad Faheem Jun 29, 2017 09:09am
what does having a free conversation have to do with hijab?
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