An Education Veiled: How School-girls in Iran fight back
- Khadija Aftab
- Oct 4, 2024
- 3 min read
Since the 2979 revolution in Iran, hijab has been a mandatory dress code for women all over Iran, Because of this Law, it is legally required for Irani women to wear the Hijab in all public spaces. Under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, an act that is “offensive” to public decency is punishable by 10 to 60 days in prison or 74 lashes. Imagine a world where a woman receives 74 lashes just because she forgot to wear her Hijab when going to do her groceries? Sadly, we don’t have to imagine. It already exists. And the most unbelievable part about it is that the law applies to girls as soon as they turn 9. NINE! In actual practice however, compulsory veil is imposed on girls from the age of seven, as they begin elementary school.
You might be wondering how Iran’s hijab laws are related to education and conflict? Well, this article will explain how these two things are absolutely inseparable from each other.
In an article published in 2023, UN experts expressed concern over such laws. It explained that the implementation of these laws could be seen as a specific form of gender apartheid, as authorities have systemic power over women and girls and their access to public space. What is a public space young girls occupy everyday in Iran? Yes, it’s the school. Unfortunately, the implementation of this law starts quite young, and this idea that women and girls have to go through petra steps, and to appear pure and chase when they are just trying to have a normal day permeates through their very being.
In 2023, Iran’s Education Ministry published a statement saying it will not provide educational services to students in schools and universities who do not wear a headscarf.
Where there is repression, there is protest.
School girls in Iran have been protesting this ridiculous law for years. One example of this is the online movement “My Stealthy Freedom”. This online movement documents the many occasions where women are punished brutally for not covering their hair.
https://www.facebook.com/StealthyFreedom/?hc_ref=SEARCH
The movement also promotes a clever kind of resistance, and it is often spearheaded by the school girls of Iran. In 2022, Irani school girls removed their hijabs in protests against the government. In Karaj, girls reportedly forced an education official out of their school.
Footage posted on social media showed them shouting “shame on you” and throwing empty water bottles at the man until he left.
In Shiraz on Monday, schoolgirls blocked traffic on a main road while waving their headscarves in the air and shouting “death to the dictator”. Many students were also pictured in classrooms with their heads uncovered and back to the camera. They were raising their middle fingers to the picture of Ayatollah Khamenei.
This really makes one think, is the aesthetic of chastity and purity which the government of Iran thinks the hijab represents really that important? So important that it shuns an entire half of the country to the margins, where they cannot exist in public spaces without thinking twice, and constantly being acutely aware of following the dress code or risk putting their safety in severe danger. How does this effect the daily lives of school going girls? What impact does it have on their personality? How do they see themselves because of this?