In May this year, Afsan Hoshamifrid stepped onto the summit of Everest and declared, I am free, now I can fly. She was the first Iranian woman to climb the highest mountain in the world. A week after her victory, Elham Ramezani stepped on the same summit, becoming the second Iranian woman to conquer Everest.
How is this victory possible? Afsane and Elham both said, 'It was our dream come true. I did not sit and dream, I continued to try hard. Only then did victory come.'
Six months after conquering Everest, Iranian girls have made another impossible possible. For three months, girls in that country have been fighting against the mandatory head covering law. In September this year, 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish girl Masa Amini was arrested by Iran's 'principle police' for not covering her head and later killed while in police custody. Unprecedented protests took place across the country against that incident. Not only the capital city of Tehran, girls from remote areas also took to the streets. According to various media reports, hundreds of protesters were killed by the police. Many were arrested. It is said from the highest level of the state that this is a conspiracy of the West, this protest is with their help. All anti-state activities will be prevented with strict hands. Those who break the law will be punished with death.
Iranian girls did not hesitate. They did not leave the road. Finally the government bowed its head. Iran's Attorney General Zafar Montazeri said the 'policy police' system would be lifted. The police's powers to arrest for not covering the head will be revoked. Repeal of the existing hair covering law in Iran is also under consideration.
The Islamic government of Iran is finally being forced to change its hijab law, not only because of the women's stubbornness. A major reason is the fragile condition of their pockets as a result of the boycott. The country is already vulnerable due to extensive international sanctions. The political unrest associated with it loosened the grip of the ruling elite. This 'concession' of withdrawing policy police is just a desperate attempt to deal with the situation.
The state has no shortage of tools for torture. They have police, special guards to suppress protests, deadly firearms, even tanks. Above all, they have the fatwas of powerful clerics and the bloody eyes of politicians. Nothing worked. All of them were forced to retreat before the protest sound of unarmed girls.
It would be a mistake to think of the nationwide protests after Masa Amini's death as just a struggle not to wear the hijab. It was the protest of the common people of that country against the intolerable rule of an ultra-conservative authoritarian regime. People of that country came down to the streets to demand not only hijab but all democratic rights. We want the right to speak, the right to walk down the street holding each other's hands, the end of false promises, the right to a normal free life. A song called 'Baroi', based on the tweets of Iranian girls, echoes this right. ( See a translation of that song in Prothom Alo here <https://www. prothomalo.com/onnoalo/buvigox1 zw>).
It is not that Iranian girls achieved this victory suddenly or overnight. They have been protesting for equal rights for a long time. The women of that country were one of the partners of the Islamic revolution in Iran. They are also witnesses of Shah's dictatorship and suppression. After the success of the Islamic revolution, women hoped to enjoy the benefits of this revolution, they would gain equal rights. In reality, the opposite happened, the clerics took away the rights of women when they came to power. The new law of Chul Dhaka was passed by the Legislature, policy police was formed to implement that law. Since then, the girls have been protesting this effort of the Ayatollahs. In the mid-90s, we first saw the 'Pink Revolution' in that country. They took to the streets with extra make-up to make a mockery of the law of covering the head, the whole body without breaking the law. He started wearing colorful clothes, sunglasses on his eyes, Fashion trendy handbag in hand. Naturally, the policy police came to crack down, but so many girls took part in the revolution that they eventually broke the war on their own.
Five years ago in 2017, Iranian girls launched another novel protest against the clerics' moral precepts. Known as the 'Wednesday White Dress Protest', women and an increasing number of men began to wear white. Instead of the traditional hijab or chador, girls wore white scarves and took to the streets in droves. Then she took off her scarf and started walking with her hair open. Boys also show solidarity with girls by wearing white clothes and pants. A picture of that movement is still etched in the minds of many. A young woman named Vida Mohaved stood in Tehran's Revolution Square and proudly waved her white scarf. Thousands of people congratulated him. Mohaved was sentenced to one year in prison for this disobedience.
Women also participated in political movements for more tolerant democratic systems rather than rigid controls. In 2009, a young woman named Neda Agha Soltan was shot dead during a protest demanding democratic rights. In 2013, reformist Hassan Mousavi's landslide victory had a major role to play in the country's women. At that time, the movement '100 women in the legislative council' played a very important role for the reform movement.
The movement that developed in Iran after the killing of Masa Amini is qualitatively different. This movement is not only for girls, but for all the people of the country - as a result, girls started it, but gradually other sections of the society joined it. In addition to civil protests or education and work strikes, protesters for the first time called for boycotts across the country of various businesses and commercial establishments owned by the Revolutionary Guard, known as the lynchpin of the religious state apparatus. A nationwide movement to reject various consumer goods, the production of which was owned by the Revolutionary Guards, arose. The matter reached such a level that the online company that was engaged in the marketing of these products, they were forced to declare that they had nothing to do with the ownership of these products by the Revolutionary Guard.
The Islamic government of Iran is finally being forced to change its hijab law, not only because of the women's stubbornness. A major reason is the fragile condition of their pockets as a result of the boycott. The country is already vulnerable due to extensive international sanctions. The political unrest associated with it loosened the grip of the ruling elite. This 'concession' of withdrawing policy police is just a desperate attempt to deal with the situation.
The situation can't be managed just by using religion or foreign conspiracies. Iran has woken up. The girls of the country are at the forefront of awakening. No wonder, Iranian girls are now thinking of touching the sky. After conquering Everest, this is their second summit victory.
5 December 2022, New York
● Hasan Ferdous is an essayist and columnist
