The Lesson of Women's Resistance for Clerics

Clerics have turned the issue of hijab into a matter of identity and dignity. It seems that the Islamic Republic can only refer to women's hijab to prove its Islamic nature. Bad hijab among women—since there are no unveiled women in Iran—means the denial of the Islamic Republic and its identity and dignity. Based on these beliefs and claims, clerics have imposed hijab on women by force. The clerical regime's approach to the issue of hijab and its imposition can be examined from several angles: First - Religious: Two or three verses of the Quran about hijab do not imply its obligation. Even if traditional and fundamentalist interpreters believe that hijab is obligatory according to the Quran, this obligation is a personal duty for believers, not something that clerics can impose on all women through the coercive powers of the state. Second - Ethical and Human Rights: Women own their bodies and should personally decide about their attire. Imposing the lifestyle of Arabs 1,400 years ago on women today is morally unjustifiable and constitutes a violation of human rights. A regime that constantly scares people about 'Westernization' should not promote and impose 'Arabization'. Third - Consequential: For 37 years, clerics have imposed hijab on everyone using coercive power. Yet now they lament why women are improperly veiled. This acknowledgment signifies a complete failure. The failure has at least the following forms: a - The finality of leadership: Court clerics claim that the opinions of the Supreme Leader are final for everyone. However, when faced with serious questions, they will say that this refers to governmental matters, not individual issues that each competent person will act according to their religious authority's fatwa. However, clerics do not consider hijab an individual issue and regard it not only as a collective issue but also as a pillar of the Islamic Republic's identity. Ayatollah Khamenei not only considers hijab a religious obligation but also stated on 25 December 1991: 'I say the chador is the best type of hijab,' on 12 October 1994: 'The chador is better than other hijabs,' and on 25 February 1999: 'Our Iranian chador is truly the superior hijab; there should be no doubt about this.' If his words were final, women would not be forced to wear hijab by military personnel. If they believed in his opinions, they would act accordingly. b - The lack of authority of the authorities: Those who consider themselves religious authorities lack authority (refer to the article 'The Lack of Authority of the Authorities'). If their words were credible, women would act according to their fatwas, and there would be no need for the application of violence. Women's bad hijab is one of the most important signs of the invalidity of religious authorities. c - The failure of force and punishment: The Islamic Republic has used force and criminal punishment to impose religious hijab on women. However, the application of violence and punishment has also led to failure, and women are increasingly distancing themselves from the imposed lifestyle of the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Mohammadi Kermani said in a Friday prayer on 21 April 2016 in Tehran: 'I advise careless individuals to know that all your vile actions are under the surveillance of secret police and will be dealt with in the most appropriate manner. It is sometimes stated that people are free; yes, people are free, but their freedom has limitations, and that freedom which seeks to undermine the regime's weight and dishonor the blood of martyrs is prohibited... When they unveil behind the wheel of a car, one cannot remain indifferent.' He then warned that 'the police have also deployed thousands of undercover agents' to monitor women's hijab. d - Bad hijab as a sign of opposition to the regime: Clerics claim that bad hijab is a sign of opposition to the Islamic Republic and must be stopped. Ayatollah Mohammadi Kermani said in a Friday prayer on 21 April 2016 in Tehran: 'Those who are unveiled or unveil want to mock the regime. In my opinion, those who want to mock the regime do so through bad hijab or unveiling. I have seen some of these scenes and felt ashamed, and it is certainly the duty of the police to deal with open sin, and if they do not, they are guilty.' e - The failure of rhetoric: 37 years of propaganda and so-called reasoning have led to failure. Clerics have exhausted all their arguments and have been unable to rationally convince the rational people to accept the lifestyle of Arabs 1,400 years ago. Ayatollah Alam al-Huda also established a relationship between moral corruption (bad hijab) and economic corruption in this week's Friday prayer in Mashhad, stating: 'These have a mutual relationship, and each is the cause and effect of the other; people who seek economic corruption ultimately pursue debauchery and produce moral corruption.' He further explained: 'Moral and economic corruption are interdependent, and the keyword for both is bad hijab. Morality becomes corrupt when the sexual instincts of society expand, and the keyword for this is bad hijab, and the keyword for social security is combating bad hijab, which, of course, is not called compulsory hijab.' He then criticized Hassan Rouhani for defending corruption (bad hijab) to establish a social base among secular and irreligious people and opposing government intervention in this matter. Alam al-Huda said, 'Because you cannot fix the economic situation, you are striking the culture of society. Why does the government not implement the law of enjoining good and forbidding wrong?' He continued: 'The Italian delegation that comes, you sign a contract with a modeling company whose art is designing clothes to design Islamic clothing from the land of infidelity? Do we really have no thought? A people who are advanced in various sciences have no thought or brain in designing Islamic clothing, and we must contract with an Italian designer to bring the polluted culture of Western delinquency and design clothes?' We all remember that Sadeghi spoke about bad hijab in Friday prayers in Tehran and claimed that adultery causes an increase in earthquakes. We remember that some European women, to refute his claim, showed their breasts to demonstrate that no earthquake occurred. Such claims, firstly, ridicule Islam and Muslims. Secondly, they further alienate women and girls from the rulings of jurisprudence. If bad hijab were the cause of economic corruption, Westerners, whose women are unveiled, should have the highest economic corruption. However, the economic corruption of Western societies without hijab and with nudity is much less than the economic corruption of the Islamic Republic with hijab. The Islamic Republic has one of the most corrupt economies in the world. 'National plundering' occurred during Ahmadinejad's era, whose views were closest to those of Ayatollah Khamenei and, according to the leader, was one of the best governments after the Constitutional Revolution. Clerics do not want to learn from women's resistance. If they had taken a lesson, they would have allowed women to decide about their attire freely. Accepting defeat is part of gaining experience. Did Ali ibn Abi Talib not say that reason in Islamic culture means preserving experience? So what does mobilizing several thousand undercover agents to control women's hijab mean?