Transcriber: Lucie Mayet Reviewer: Denise R Quivu
"The joy of a raindrop and its sorrow in a swamp"
- the beautiful words of the Iranian poet Esmail Khoi
from his poem reflecting on the Iranian Revolution;
"The joy of a raindrop and its sorrow in a swamp."
In 1979, the joyous and pure aspiration of a nation
for a secular revolution,
for justice, for freedom, for independence
fell into an Islamic swamp,
and for millions of Iranians, this sorrow continues to this day.
The women of Iran were amongst the first groups
to experience the shock of a new Islamic regime.
The hijab became compulsory, and women were forced to wear it.
I remember March, 8, 1979,
the day before the newspapers had announced
that women had to wear the hijab to work the following day.
The following day, women didn't go to work.
They went on strike.
and 100, 000 of them poured into the streets of Tehran,
marching from Tehran University and shouting strong slogans like,
(Farsi) "I haven't revolted to go backwards,"
(English) "I haven't revolted to go backwards,"
(Farsi) "Independence, freedom, civil rights."
(English) "Independence, freedom, civil rights."
(Farsi) "I say it under torture: either death or freedom."
(English) "I say it under torture: either death or freedom."
But as strong as the slogans were,
they were not enough to stop the new Islamic regime
from imposing the hijab law on Iranian women.
Interestingly, amongst a sea of uncovered women protesters in 1979,
there were many hijabi women,
some covered in full chador
that's a cloth that covers the body from head to toe.
In a filmed interview with a French journalist,
one chadori woman says that she would sooner denounce her faith
than to see the rights of women trampled upon
by the new hijab law.
Another chadori woman says
that she encouraged her daughters to get educated
so that they could be free, so that they wouldn't be dictated to.
"The new hijab law," she said, "took her daughters' freedom away."
Looking at today's Iranian women
walking on the same streets as the women protesters in 1979,
I can not help but think
how counterproductive the hijab law has been.
There's been a huge explosion of cosmetic and plastic surgery
amongst Iranian women.
Many Iranian women, as a backlash to Islamic dress code and morality rules,
are embracing a very extreme version
of westernized ideas of beauty and sexuality.
The hijab law rather than encouraging women toward piety
has, in fact, pushed them to adopt
a very distorted version of Western modernity.
This is a very good example
of how enforcing unjust rules can be counterproductive
by pushing people to the extreme of the opposite side.
In fact,
the origin of 1979 revolution in Iran itself can be traced back
to another imposition on women,
this time in the form of forced unveiling of women.
In 1936,
Reza Shah, the former Shah of Iran's father,
in an attempt to push Iran into rapid westernization
and reduce the influence of religion in Iran,
banned women from wearing head coverings in public.
Reza Shah's plan was to drag Iranian women into modernity
by the lock of their hair.
Women who wore head coverings in public were arrested, were shot at,
and some were killed.
The screaming and cursing of women became endemic.
Some women vowed never to leave their homes again.
A new law which was supposed to bring liberation to women,
in fact contributed to a greater oppression
by making women prisoners in their own homes.
The hatred of forced westernization,
the lack of respect for traditional and tribal values
sowed the seeds of revolution that came in 1979.
Reza Shah proved that tearing away the veil by force
not only doesn't lead to liberation
but is likely to pave the path for extremism.
This is an important lesson
which is lost to some European countries
that have already passed specific laws to ban face covering
which is only practiced
by a very small minority of women in the West.
These types of bans,
such as banning the burkini which we have seen recently,
are only likely to lead
to a further isolation, marginalization, and extremism
among Muslims.
If European countries are serious about having a cohesive society,
then they should look
at the discrimination against the Muslim population,
they should look at the housing issues,
they should look at the high rates of unemployment amongst Muslim youth.
This is the best way of combatting extremism.
Today, what is problematic is not the hijab,
it is its imposition on women.
Women should be given a choice.
Thirty years ago, my sister and I were lucky enough to exercise that choice.
After we left Iran, as soon as we stepped inside the safety of Heathrow Airport,
we took our hijabs off and dumped them in the first bin that we came across.
Looking back, what we were throwing away was years of suppression
because the people who had forced the veil on our heads
were the same people who wanted to force a veil
on our voices, on our laughters, on our courage, on our sexuality,
on our thoughts, on our imagination.
They wanted to control every aspect of our lives.
The truth is
that for many Iranians of my generation
and my mother's generation,
the hijab was never part of our cultural or religious identity.
But it's very important to recognize
that for many Muslim women around the globe,
the hijab is indeed an important and an integral part
of their religiosity and spirituality.
Contrary to the popular belief,
many Muslim women say that they want to wear the hijab
not because they want to become invisible
but because they want to become more visible.
"The hijab," they say,
"gives more visibility" to their consciousness,
to their thinking, to their practice, to their behavior,
and that is why they wear it.
For many Muslim women the hijab is an internal message to themselves
and more importantly,
an external message to the outside world
that they are faithful to the principal values of their religion,
that they are believers, that they are followers.
Hanna Yusuf, in her brilliant video for The Guardian says,
"Hijab is not against liberal values,
but is seen as a threat
because it resists the commercial imperatives
that support a consumerist culture."
Hanna says, "In a commercialized world,
where a women's value is reduced to her sexual allure,
wearing the hijab can be quite liberating."
But oddly enough, for some women,
wearing the hijab is indeed about consumerism
because it has become a fashion statement.
That is why companies like Dior and Dolce & Gabbana
have turned it into a multi-million dollar fashion industry.
But for others, wearing the hijab is a journey toward self-discovery.
They may not wear it forever or even all the time,
but when they do wear it, they retreat into a spiritual sanctuary
that brings them strength and security.
In a recent visit to London, I came across a hijabi lady,
serving behind an Armani makeup counter in a well-known department store.
I asked her, "Why do you wear the hijab?"
She told me that she'd been thinking about it for a long time,
and she finally decided to wear it after the death of her grandmother.
She said puting on her hijab everyday reminded her of the values
that she cherish the most: love, family, spirituality.
No matter what motivates women to wear or not wear the hijab,
what is important is that we trust
that women have the intelligence and strength
to understand and resist their own oppression.
I am filled with pride when I read about my fellow Iranian woman
Fatimah Baraghani also known as Táhirih,
A poet, an educated, and courageous woman,
Táhirih, as early as 1848,
in an act of defiance against the subservient role of women,
removed her hijab in a gathering of men.
She caused such shock and horror
that one man reportedly cut his own throat
and left the meeting with blood gushing out of his neck.
Táhirih's brave fight for women's liberty came
before the first-ever women's convention in the United States.
Whether or not Islam instructs the head covering of women
remains a contested issue amongst Islamic scholars.
Of course, we need to condemn the compulsory veiling of women
wherever it happens within Saudi Arabia or in Iran.
But where women do have a choice,
we need to respect that they will exercise that choice
to their benefit and the benefit of the society at large.
If we believe that the choice to cover less doesn't lead to liberty,
then why assume that the choice to cover more leads to oppression?
In the end, the only veil that needs lifting
is the one that covers the mind.
Thank you.
(Applause)