Movement against Iran's headscarf law gains momentum

Movement against Iran's headscarf law gains momentum
Copyright Twitter/@7chesterr
By Cristina Abellan Matamoros
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A renewed wave of protest to get rid of the strict laws that force Iranian women to wear hijabs in public has gained momentum on social media.

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The act of resistance was started by Vida Movahed, an Iranian woman who was arrested last month for standing on a telecom box and waving her headscarf around.

The young woman’s resistance act coincided with the wave of protests that spread across the country in late December 2017.

A Tehran resident, who requested anonymity, told Euronews that a lot of women are protesting the dress code imposed by Iranian government by taking their headscarves off.

Credit: @7chesterr

Pictures of other women replicating Movahed’s act began to emerge on social media on Monday.

The pictures — mostly shared through messaging app Telegram — show women standing on telecom boxes and removing their headscarves.

A hashtag about the movement, which can be translated to #GirlsofRevolutionStreet, was also trending on Iranian Twitter.

Mohaved’s identity was concealed until Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, announced on her Facebook page that Movahed had been released on Sunday (January 28).

Iranian Islamic law has forced women to wear a hijab and long, loose clothing for modesty since the 1979 revolution. 

According to the Guardian, a second woman identified as Narges Hosseini was arrested on Monday morning after imitating Mohaved's act. It was not clear if she was still detained. 

The movement to get rid of the country’s dress codes was started by Iranian activist Masih Alinejad and her website My Stealthy Freedom, which encouraged women to send photos of themselves without hijabs. Alinejad also created the campaign #whitewednesdays last year, which called on women to wear white in protest of the strict laws. 

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