As American women protest the unproven gender wage gap, the so-called patriarchy, and a lack of unconstitutional, government-mandated paid family leave, 8 Iranian women were arrested on Sunday for failing to wear headscarves when posing in online pictures.
The arrests came as part of a recent crackdown by Iran’s judiciary on social media practices and primarily targeted online models, Instagram stars, and bloggers, showcasing the juxtaposition of the nation’s strict religious laws and modern culture.
“The headscarf issue often features prominently in the constant tug of war between powerful hard-liners and Iran’s increasingly urbanized and worldly society,” said Thomas Erdbrink in a recent article for the New York Times. “Iran’s laws require that all women, even visiting foreigners, cover their hair out of a traditional respect for culture and morality. Many hard-liners view the obligatory veil as a last-ditch defense against what they say is an onslaught of Western cultural decadence.”
According to a Tehran public prosecutor, the blame for such an offense does not lie on the offender herself, but rather on “the enemy,” Iran’s name for the West and its “unwanted influence.”
“The enemy is investing in order to create a generation without any willpower,” the prosecutor said on a state-sponsored television program in regard to social media. “We must refrain from any actions that run counter to the values of the establishment.”
Regardless of the recent election of President Hassan Rouhani, whose platform called for increased personal freedom and a lessening of strict social regulations, Iran’s judiciary and security forces remain hard-line-dominated, preventing the country from updating many of its laws.
A result of such a legislative standstill is the continued oppression of Iranian women in terms of their wardrobe and what they can and cannot post online. In fact, just last week a woman who had been elected to Parliament was told that she would not be allowed to take her seat because pictures of her not wearing the required headscarf were found on social media. Some citizens, however, remain hopeful that the passage of time will eventually spark change.
“They are doing such things to show us who is in power,” said Mojgan Faraji, a reformist journalist, of the hard-liners. “But in the end, they lose, as the gap between them and the society is only widening.”
