The killing of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini, for the way she wore the hijab, sparked massive demonstrations in the country, marked above all by the gestures of women, who reject the laws that oblige the way of dressing, and by the imposition to cover the head by force.
During the ongoing protests since the killing of Amini, 22, at the hands of the moral police on September 16, Iranian women challenged security men by taking off their veils and some of them cut locks from their hair, as well as their own. supporters in different capitals of the world.
These were clear signs that Iranian women were fed up with the methods of imposing a certain dress on them while Several activists participate Old images of Iran, showing that Iranian women were more like their peers around the world, before the Islamic revolution changed everything, starting in 1979.
Chance”beta pixelFor his part, he published a series of photos, as part of a general condemnation of what Iran has become due to the strict laws “imposed by a group of clerics on Iranian society”, as opponents say, which have changed the features of an entire nation.
The photos that were taken during the rule of the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, who did not live at that time, may not believe they were taken in Iran and not in a Western country.
The girls wore all kinds of skirts and everything that was manufactured within the fashion that prevailed at the time without fearing any security escalation against them.
As for the young people, they loved jeans, which are made in Western countries, especially in the United States, and most of them had their hair styled, as do Hollywood stars and artists of the sixties and seventies.
While the Shah’s dictatorship suppressed dissent and limited political freedom, it also prompted the country to embrace West-oriented secular modernization, allowing for some degree of cultural freedom.
The Shah granted women the right to vote and an increasing number of them joined the workforce.
Their rights were also protected by the Family Protection Act, which gave them the right to seek divorce and a ban on marriage for children under 15.
Men and women mingled freely and education for all was encouraged.
Under the Shah, Iranians enjoyed the luxury of attending colleges, universities and libraries, while high school was free for all and financial support was provided to college students.
Therefore, the late Shah’s son hailed the ongoing demonstrations in Iran as a historical revolution led by women and urged countries around the world to put more pressure on religious leadership.
Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution, called for greater preparation for a future Iranian regime, secular and democratic, as he called it.
“In my opinion, it is the first revolution in the modern era for women and led by women, with the support of the men of Iran, by sons, brothers and fathers,” Pahlavi, who lives in exile in Washington, United States, he told AFP about a month ago.
“He went so far as to say: enough,” he added.
His grandfather, Reza Shah, banned the veil in 1936 in an attempt to imitate the West inspired by neighboring Turkey, but the latest Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, made the veil an option.
It ended with the Islamic Republic imposing “decency” rules for women in public, which have become the subject of criticism from the new generation of Iranian women and even their male peers.
The Islamic Republic was founded more than four decades ago and has survived despite the hostility of Western countries, especially the United States.
But Pahlavi (Jr.) stresses that the system can end at any moment and that the world must be prepared.
The Iranian revolution has brought drastic changes to Iran, not least for women.
One area that has been looked into is the way women wear the veil and the need for baggy clothing.
The use of the headscarf was later imposed and many of the rights previously granted to women were revoked, while most of them are eager to regain their rights amid protests that have been going on for nearly a month.
Observers believe that the protests sparked by the killing of Amini moved to demand the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime, which is the secret of the regime’s fear of these protests, its repression at times of them and its attempt to play on “imminent external danger” at other times and to show signs of calm.
Authorities replaced a huge mural depicting Iranian women wearing headscarves the day after it was erected in a main square in central Tehran after it sparked widespread controversy among Iranians in light of ongoing protests.
The mural, which was erected on Thursday in Vali Asr Square, included images of dozens of famous women in Iran, with the phrase “Women from my land, Iran.”
Since the beginning of the protests, the demonstrators have launched various slogans, in particular “One woman … one life … freedom“.
