Opinion |

Iranian protests cast worldwide light on status of women

For the women of Iran, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police was the proverbial “last straw.” Amini was arrested for violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code, allegedly wearing her headscarf, or hijab, in an “improper” way.

Amini died on Sept. 16. Iranian state officials have claimed Amini suffered a heart attack; her family has said she was healthy and fell into a coma after being beaten by police.

A viral image of a bandaged Amini, lying in a hospital bed, fueled outrage. Protests that began at her funeral in Iran’s Kurdistan province swept quickly through the country.

Authorities have responded by taking measures to limit communication and keep the unrest from spreading. Security forces have been deployed — sometimes, with lethal consequences. The nonprofit Iran Human Rights estimates that at least 215 people have been killed in the protests, including 27 children. Hundreds more have been arrested in violent crackdowns.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameni has blamed the U.S. and Israel for the turbulence.

Videos from the protests show Iranian women — most of them young — waving their headscarves in the air and tossing them onto bonfires, in defiance of modesty laws. The women can be heard chanting the words “zan, zendegi, azadi” (woman, life, freedom) and “death to the dictator.”

In the Western world especially, the hijab is seen as representative of Muslim women’s oppression. But as Kalpana Jain, a senior ethics and religion writer at The Conversation wrote last year, some Muslim women feel empowered wearing hijab — both as a religious act and an assertion of their identity and pride, in the face of Islamophobia.

So, across Iran and in cities around the world, women are protesting Amini’s death and demonstrating solidarity in another way: by cutting their hair.

Sarah Parvini, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, gave context to the practice: “To some, (it) evokes rituals described in ancient Persian poetry and literature in which women cut their hair in mourning or protest. For others, it is a demonstration of power that shows that women cannot be controlled by the hair on their head.” Men are joining in, Parvini said, showing support by shaving their heads.

While the protests have been widespread, some observers are unconvinced they will lead to changes in Iran’s decades-long theocracy or the Khameni regime. There has been unrest in the country before, stemming from concerns about government corruption and a flagging economy.

Others believe there is no turning back — that this movement has uniquely unified Iranians across socioeconomic lines, geographic regions and ethnicity to challenge and change the status quo.

Looking at the situation in Iran, I can’t help but think about the status of women in our own country. And I can’t help but conclude we are backsliding.

The Supreme Court decision in May to reverse Roe v. Wade represented a significant setback to reproductive freedom — a nose-thumbing at the vast majority of Americans, women and men, who support legal abortion. While some states, like California, are taking action to codify access, many more are seeking to ban abortion altogether.

Ari Honarvar, a writer who came to San Diego from Iran as a 14-year-old, unaccompanied, recently warned in Newsweek that the overturning of Roe “provides a glimpse of how swiftly, in broad daylight, decades of progress and half the population’s rights can be trampled.” To Honarvar, growing religiosity in our government will continue to result in a loss of liberties for women, as happened when theocracy came to Iran.

It’s hard to imagine an America that is as oppressive for women as Iran. But there are concerns beyond the loss of reproductive rights. While the #MeToo movement inspired many women (and men) to come forward with their stories, sexual harassment remains a very real problem in many organizations.

The latest harassment statistics underscore our slow progress. Nearly 40 percent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, but 75 percent of claims still go unreported. From our work at the National Conflict Resolution Center, we know the reasons: a lack of confidence that the issue will be addressed or a fear of retaliation – or both.

Despite my concerns about backsliding, I am hopeful. Last week, I wrote about professional women soccer players in the U.S., who endured years of abuse and harassment by their coaches. Now a cultural shift has begun to create a professional environment that is safe and respectful of players.

Here, in Iran, and around the world, women are starting to say, “We will suffer in silence no longer.”

Dinkin is president of the National Conflict Resolution Center, a San Diego-based group working to create solutions to challenging issues, including intolerance and incivility. To learn about NCRC’s programming, visit ncrconline.com