Protest against Hijab in Iran: Islam as a religion has always been proselytising. Since its inception, various attempts have been made by its religious successors to conquest the world to establish the rule of Islam. Emboldened with the religious zeal to convert people to Islam, their religious warlords have launched various expeditious missions.
With the political theory of Kaafir, Jihad and Ummah, either Islamic caliphs or their slaves have launched a series of invasions in the South and Southeast Asia.
These successive invasions have resulted in mass killing, mass rape, and uncountable instances of religious conversions. Invaders forcefully converted the Hindu population and enlarged their religious base.
The current Muslims of south and Southeast Asia are mostly the converted ones. It is also a universal fact that converted Muslims are more radicalised than original Muslims and they are more prone to follow stringent religious policies.
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There are two very contrasting and interesting debates going on in the world and in India. On one hand, dozens of petitions seeking the right to wear hijab have been filed in the secular republic of India. On the other hand, people in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been protesting against the mandatory hijab law.
It is really contrasting at the same time puzzling that people from an Islamic country want to disobey the religious whip of wearing a hijab and people from a secular country want to make it a fundamental right.
This debate also gives a clear picture that Muslims in India rigorously adhere to their religious doctrines and original Muslims are ready to accept the change leaving regressive policies behind.
Protest against Hijab in Iran
Currently, the Islamic Republic of Iran is going through a mass protest upheaval. Following the death of a 22 year old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini in the custody of Morality Police, Iranian people are on the street against the government.
A large number of women accompanied by a huge male population are hitting different cities of Iran. Womens of Iran are organising mass Hijab law disobedience and burning every symbol which obligates them to follow the religious dictation.
in Sari in northern Iran, a woman dances and throws her headscarf in fire amid cheers and chants of "We're all in this together." #Mahsa_Amini #مهسا_امینیhttps://t.co/ExyUZkEJem
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 20, 2022
Death of Mahsa Amini
On September 14, 2022, the Morality Police of Iran, which is entrusted to enforce the hijab law, arrested Mahsa Amini for improperly wearing a hijab.
Following her arrest, she was brought to the police station where she was inhumanly beaten by the police. Due to the assault, she suffered a skull injury and died two days later.
Following her death, a nationwide strike was called by Iranian Kurdistan parties and other civil society groups.
Protesters, other than the prosecution of perpetrators of Mahsa Amini’s death, demanded to overthrow of the Islamic government, establishment of democracy, revoking mandatory requirements in public law, disbandment of morality police and end violence against women in Iran.
Religious Extremism of Iran
These mass protests are the result of the successive coercive religious policy of the Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the religious state of Iran has launched endless abuses on its population.
Just two years after the Islamic Revolution in 1981, the state made it mandatory to wear a hijab. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini announced that women should follow the Islamic dress code. Although after the protest, the government only made hijab a recommendatory rule.
But, in 1980, hijab was mandatory in government and public offices, and in 1983, it became compulsory for all women (citizens as well non-citizens) to wear hijab in the country.
The law was in consonance with the fact that during the Islamic Revolution two slogans grabbed the spotlight. One, “Wear a veil, or we will punch your head and the second, “Death to the unveiled”.
According to Article 368 of the Penal Code of Iran, a woman who appears in public without the Islamic hijab may be sentenced from ten days to two months in prison or fined fifty thousand or five hundred thousand Rials.
Against these coercive religious policies and for the establishment of democracy, the Iranian people have organised many protests. Under the Iranian Democracy Movement, Iranian youths, women rights activists, trade unions and other civil rights groups have adopted various demonstration against the present system.
Arab Spring 2.0
As the protest is spreading, it is called as the moment of Arab Spring 2.0. In the early 2010s, a series of similar anti-government protest, uprising and armed rebellion were launched in many Muslim Arab countries against the monarchical rule.
Originating from Tunisia, it spread to Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. The rulers who were deposed by the Arab Spring were Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen.
Considering the violent overthrow of these Islamic rulers, the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates followed various reform policies in their own country.
Most of the changes were made in Islamic laws to make them in consonance with modern society. These reforms provided these countries with to shield their monarchy from the march of people’s rule.
Hijab Will Stay In South and Southeast Asia
As these Islamic Countries are mostly ruled by the monarchical governments, they are more prone to changes in religious laws. Also, as the mass protest is spreading against the regressive hijab policies, Iran would surely make it an optional choice.
Further, with time, all Islamic countries would be free from hijab. But, Hijab in the south and Southeast Asia countries would stay.
Because, muslim in these countries are mostly converted and in order to prove their religious allegiance, they have traditionally followed stringent rules of Islam. South Asian Muslims are the most aggressive and stringent followers of the norms of Islam.
Most of the extremist activities like riots, conversion, terrorism, violence, or other unlawful activities are executed by these converted superfluous followers of Islam.
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A survey conducted by Johan Horgan of Georgia State University, states that converted Muslims seems more willing than native Muslims to radicalise.
The cause of development of extremism in converted Muslims is attributed to the fact that they are more prone to face double marginalisation. Both their non-Muslim friends as well as original Muslims are sceptical about their religious allegiance.
This theory is also verified by the partisan treatment of south Asian Muslims by the Islamic State. When Islamic State was recruiting Muslims from South Asia to fight their holy war, many Indians, Pakistani and Bangladeshi joined them.
But, reports suggest that Muslim fighters from Iraq, Syria, Saudi and Palestine were given the job of officers and provided with better arms, ammunition and salaries.
While Muslim fighter from South Asia was given manual jobs cleaning, security and maintenance, and were highly underpaid. They are also used as a shield to save the original Muslim fighters.
According to central agencies, ISIS considers Islam as practiced in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as not pure.
These pure-impure partisans of converted and original Muslims of Arab world force South and South East Asian Muslims to follow more and more hard-line Islam. That is why Muslims in South Asia are more radicalised and backward.
Religious extremism prevents them from escaping the archaic mind set. In this modern evolved society, they want to follow outdated, regressive and extremist policies. They want their personal laws to prevail over the commonly accepted modern constitutional law based on reasoning.
In the debate on hijab, the question prevailing is the same. How can a secular state establish the right to wear hijab in public educational institutions? When dress codes are made to ensure equality and uniformity, in educational institutions, the preferable right to wear hijab completely violates these constitutional norms.
But, emboldened with religious zeal, these converted Muslims once again want to show their religious allegiance to Islam and prove their purity. That is why, in secular democratic countries like India, protest after protest is being called to reestablish the regressive Sharia law.
Although many Islamic countries are reforming their societies, South and Southeast Asian countries are still reluctant to change. These countries may be free from hijab but India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh would remain clogged in black cloth.
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