Iran is currently experiencing a wave of protests from women against its compulsory hijab order, as reports and images circulating on social media emerge from the country’s capital of Tehran. An image of 31-year-old Vida Movahed standing on top of a telecoms box in Tehran and holding up a hijab on a stick in protest of forced hijab, surfaced last week. A second woman was photographed protesting in solidarity with Movahed on Monday, and both have since become a symbol of a now international resistance against the obligatory hijab order.

This forms part of a long line of protests against the Islamic government in Iran. The order, which was issued in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution by Ayatollah Khomeini, decreed that all women be covered from head-to-toe in public at all times or risk facing persecution. Khomeini’s announcement faced immediate resistance from both women and men across the country, culminating in one of the biggest protests against compulsory hijab since its inception. The protest, which was held on international women’s day March 8th 1979, attracted approximately 100,000 women and men to the streets of Tehran in opposition against the government of the Islamic republic of Iran’s decision to enforce what many have described since as an oppressive regime against the country’s people.

---

Related

This Week in World News: Starting with Yemen & Lebanon

A Female Imam Led Prayer in India, Here’s What Twitter Thought

The People Keeping the City of the Dead Alive in Egypt

---

Despite efforts to end the act since 1979, compulsory hijab has remained a rigid part of the social and political fabric of the country. Protestors have since experienced a number of ‘crackdowns’ for refusing to observe the order, including police brutality and political propaganda.

A woman in chador protesting against compulsory hijab. The message is clear women should have a choice via @NahidMolavi #دختران خیابان انقلاب pic.twitter.com/Jz2wbpPYnP

— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) January 31, 2018

I used to be worried that #IranProtests lacked leadership & that therefore t could be squashed by the regime, but seeing these images I have regained faith in the #IranUprising .The women are the leaders,the hijab their symbol and more images are added to this collage every day. pic.twitter.com/1LdK6Y6VUD

— Annika H Rothstein (@truthandfiction) January 31, 2018

The oldest supporter of the anti-compulsory hijab in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/ETzMRhAFHy

— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) January 31, 2018

Iranian women put their scarves on sticks in the middle of busy streets, as a peaceful protest to mandatory Hijab laws. We have been fighting this unfair law for three decades, slowly but consistently. We fought and we pushed back. And this is where we are today. pic.twitter.com/cwNOiykTUp

— Negar (@NegarMortazavi) January 29, 2018

Now, in yet another attempt to curtail the order, activists across the world and of all ages are showing defiant solidarity with Movahed’s hijab flag statement, and in the streets of Iran where many risk facing arrest.

Notable Events

• March 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini decrees mandatory hijab.
• March 8th 1979: 100,000 people take to the streets in Tehran to protest against the decree.
• April 2007: Crackdown on ‘bad-hijab’ from Tehran Police lead by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei