Widespread Reactions to the Hashtag 'We Are Slutty'; Activists Tell VOA: A Slutty Woman Means Uncontrollable

Reactions to the release of a secretly filmed video of a cleric recording a young woman holding her baby without mandatory hijab at a medical center in Qom, and the surge of the hashtag 'We Are Slutty' in support of this mother, have created a new wave on social media. On March 12, another video of a clinic officer clashing with a woman who refuses to comply with the government's mandatory hijab was released; this is another example of this type of civil disobedience protest. Just two days after the first video was released, thousands of posts, mostly by female users, caused the hashtag 'We Are Slutty' to trend, while some users protested the inappropriateness of this term and used alternative hashtags such as 'Lioness Woman' and 'I Am a Free Woman.' A VOA journalist conducted brief interviews with several civil activists residing in Tehran and Rasht, asking them why they support or oppose the use of the hashtag 'We Are Slutty.' An activist from the 'Me Too' campaign in Tehran expressed her support for the hashtag, stating, 'The government's method for humiliating and assaulting women is to use words that have taken on a moral burden and have gradually become unacceptable in the patriarchal norms of society,' but by saying 'Yes, we are slutty, we are actually declaring that we are not the obedient, virtuous women that the Islamic Republic wants us to be.' This specialist in sexual violence against women added, 'We are actually destigmatizing this word with the hashtag 'We Are Slutty' and stripping it of its negative connotation that is a tool of violence against women, effectively disarming this term.' A sociologist from Tehran University also told VOA, 'The term 'slutty woman' in Arabic means a woman who does not fall under male domination.' He emphasized, 'The patriarchal world fears any woman who wants to take control of her own power,' which is why the term 'slutty woman,' which originally has a positive connotation, has been given a shameful burden. A female activist from Rasht, emphasizing the hashtag 'We Are Slutty,' told VOA, 'Being slutty means autonomy, growth, it means care.' She explained that inspiring female role models have always exhibited a form of uncontrollability, stressing, 'Nothing makes oppression more visible than being slutty and disobedient.' Meanwhile, a filmmaker from Tehran, emphasizing that she does not want to use the hashtag 'We Are Slutty,' said, 'I do not want to reproduce ugly male terms and label them.' The debate between supporters and opponents of the hashtag 'We Are Slutty' and the use of alternative hashtags 'Lioness Woman' and 'I Am a Free Woman' continues to be heated on social media. The mother of Siavash Mahmoudi, using the hashtag 'Lioness Woman,' wrote: 'For my 16-year-old son who was targeted by a bullet, for my Siavash, I am a lioness and very strong.' Leila Bozorgan, a journalist, also wrote on X, 'I Am a Free Woman.' Maryam Kikhai, a seeking justice mother, wrote on X, 'Your being slutty has nothing to do with me, I am a free woman. I am a mother. I am a wife. I am an Iranian lioness.' Arash Hampei, a social rights activist, using the hashtag 'I Am a Free Woman,' wrote, 'Free women of Iran are currently accumulating resentment for the day of reckoning.' Yalda Parsajo, a student, emphasized the hashtag 'I Am a Free Woman' and protested the phrase 'We Are Slutty,' stating that this method of reformists is to diminish public anger. Meanwhile, Atash Shakerami, in her first reaction to support the Qom mother and the hashtag 'We Are Slutty,' wrote on her Instagram page, 'Long live the slutty people of Iran.' This post faced reactions from both supporters and opponents on X. Sudabeh Ghaissari, while greeting the people of Iran, wrote in protest of this post, 'It could not have been better to diminish the courage of the Qom mother.' Masih Alinejad, a women's rights activist, with the hashtag 'We Are Slutty' on X, published a video of 'women confronting abusive clerics' and wrote, 'What a pleasure it is to see that these women are no longer alone. The era of dehumanizing loud women with terms like slutty and whore is over.' Azadeh Davachi, a women's activist, also wrote with the same hashtag, 'We are slutty, and our voices, whether they want it or not, have become louder in support of oppressed women.' Saba Bakhtiari from the families of the seeking justice wrote in reaction to the hashtag 'We Are Slutty,' that the anger of the Qom mother revealed 'the slut within many.' Nejat Bahrami, a journalist, also criticized the hashtag 'slutty,' stating that this term 'has no relation to the rights of the Qom mother.' Dadban, a group of legal advisors, quoted Mohsen Barahani, a lawyer, on their X account, stating that the cleric 'was collecting evidence for case-making' and 'was not enjoining what is right,' and 'filming or documenting a forbidden act or criminal behavior does not at all have the title of enjoining what is right.' Previously, Dadban had called the release of this video 'a clear case of harassment.'