Hijab in Iran and India

In Iran, the custodial death of Mahsa Amini has reignited calls to rein in morality police actions against women suspected of violating the dress code, in effect since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The protests that turned violent in some parts of the country started after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 while under detention of the “morality police” of Iran for not complying with the strict Hijab rules. Protests started after her September 17 funeral, and have taken place in more than a dozen cities. The unrest spread across the country as women burned their headscarves to protest laws that force women to wear the hijab and also cut off their hair. Iranian women, who are the youngest generation and university-educated people living in cities were the groups most opposed to the mandatory hijab. Also, majority of men, people living in rural areas, people over the age of 50, and those without higher education opposed the mandatory hijab. These help explain why women are publicly burning the hijab and chanting against the very idea of an Islamic regime. For them, the mandatory hijab is the Islamic Republic’s Berlin Wall. This is backed up by a 2022 survey conducted by a media group on political systems, which showed that about 67% of the target population of literate adults are against a political system governed by religious law. Again, women, the youngest generation, and university-educated people living in cities are the groups most opposed to the idea of an Islamic regime. The highest level of support for an Islamic regime, at 35%, was expressed by people living in rural areas. Given these numbers, it shouldn’t surprise commentators that among the most heard chants all over the country are calls for the Islamic Republic to be brought down. The videos that ordinary Iranians are desperately trying to show to the world are thus reflective of the social reality in the country. The facts are that the majority opposes the compulsory hijab and that people of all social layers do not want an Islamic Republic. While Iran is in a state of commotion, the protests have also attracted attention in the Arab world including Iraq and women are gathering online to offer solidarity to Iranian women struggling under the country’s harsh theocratic regime. While the protests in Iran have been against the headscarf, Muslim women in India are fighting for their right to wear the hijab after the government of Karnataka banned wearing clothes that disturb equality, integrity, and public order in schools and colleges in February this year. After hearing arguments on ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions in Karnataka, upheld by the state high court, the Supreme Court of India on October 13 delivered a split verdict. A number of counsel appearing in court for Muslim women who have petitioned against the ban insisted have insisted that preventing them from wearing the hijab to the classroom will put their education in jeopardy as they might stop attending classes. The hijab scenario in Iran and India indicates that in the latter, it has become politicised. The issue needs to be revisited around the hijab and the conditions perpetuating the mandatory wearing of it. In doing so it is important to move away from the false dichotomies of culture versus religion, or the local versus the western, which obscure rather than illuminate the root causes of forced hijab.