Following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody, thousands of women and girls took to the streets to demonstrate. Mahsa had been arrested for allegedly not wearing a headscarf “properly”. But this was not the first time that crowds of women and men in the country had come out to protest the authorities’ orders on what women should wear and how they should behave.
It was meant to be a small gathering to celebrate International Women’s Day, a day that the then newly appointed Supreme Leader considered a Western invention.
But what was supposed to be a small celebration turned into a massive demonstration.
Tehran, March 8, 1979
Just twenty-four hours earlier, the architect of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had issued a new decree requiring all women to wear the hijab in the workplace. In a speech to thousands of his supporters in the city of Qom, Khomeini said that without the veil, women are considered “naked” according to Islamic law.
About 10,000 men and women took to the streets in Tehran on March 8, 1979, which coincides with International Women’s Day, to express their objection to the decision.
“On that day, a battle began between the ayatollahs and the women,” says Mehrangiz Kar, a 78-year-old prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist.
About 10,000 women demonstrated across Iran in the week following International Women’s Day
The morning after Khomeini’s announcement, thousands of women thronged the Faculty of Law at the University of Tehran. The rally was then organized by the Tehran Bar Association, which Mehrangiz had joined as an apprentice.
Mehrangiz remembers the event fondly: “It was a revolutionary atmosphere. The building was full, and there were even a lot of people crowded in front of it as well. No one came there to stop us. I remember a woman going upstairs and throwing her headscarf out the window. It was symbolic.” It was also a beautiful thing. It was the first challenge to Khomeini’s ideology.”
As a young law student in Tehran in 1979, Mehrangiz was accustomed to the open-minded life of the city. Men and women mixed freely, and the wearing of Western clothing such as dresses and the use of cosmetics was common.
Therefore, to have those freedoms taken away overnight was a “shock”, Mehrangiz said.
“We felt that our freedom was being challenged. You have to understand that just two days ago, men and women were sitting together in cafes and cinemas. We could do sports and climb mountains side by side.
Today, single men and women risk being harassed and pursued by the morality police if they are seen walking together in the street.
Women wearing make-up and Western dresses have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest against the compulsory veiling law
Mehrangiz says it is only now that she realizes that women did not realize then that what happened was just the beginning of their fight for equal rights with men in Iran.
In the following years, the segregation of males and females included educational facilities and workplaces. The rules of dress and behavior that women had to abide by became more strict and restrictive for them.
“We had high hopes at that time. We didn’t know how violent the battle would be. We thought they would give up their decisions after we demonstrated.”
International Women’s Day, 2023
Fifty years after that protest, Iranian women are still fighting for the same rights.
A new generation born into an increasingly restrictive regime has taken the lead.
Zara turns her back to the camera and poses against a wall to hide her identity during the interview
Zara, a psychiatrist in her 30s, is recording her testimony for the BBC while sitting against a white wall in a secret location.
Zara participated in several demonstrations following the death of Mahsa Amini last year, and fears she could face arrest if she speaks out about them.
It is known that the courts of the capital, Tehran, have issued prison sentences of up to 10 years against 400 people, and have executed four men since the start of the demonstration movement last September.
But despite the risks, Zara says she won’t give up.
“I have no doubt that I will continue. I have been afraid of arrest for months, and I feel unsafe even in my own home. But I will not stop fighting to the death.”
For Zara, women like Mehrangiz are a source of inspiration and courage.
“If we, the next generation, know our rights and know how to fight for them, it’s the women who fought before us,” says Zara.
Schoolgirls remove their headscarves during a demonstration
As for Mehrangiz, her generation lived through the era of the Iran-Iraq war after experiencing the period of the Islamic Revolution.
Mehrangiz says that the issue of women’s rights lost its importance after the war began to destroy the country.
“In times of war, when you have to cover your nose with your scarf to avoid the smell of dead bodies in the street, there is no room left to fight for civil rights,” she explains.
For both Mehrangis and Zara, there is hope for the future. So far at least, the momentum of support for women inside and outside Iran in their fight for gender equality has not faded.
Zara says that acts of defiance happen every day:
“Having women who don’t wear headscarves on the street has never stopped. I think it’s the bravest act of defiance that has come out of women. Now, the whole world understands that women in Iran are being discriminated against, and they will fight for their rights to the death.”
“This country will only be free when its women are free.”