Iran Protests – What’s it all about?

What’s been happening recently in the Iranian Islamic Republic is many people, predominantly women, are protesting in the streets against the government and what they call “the morality police”.  The police force has been getting stricter and stricter on how they enforce laws against women. In Iran, women are forced to wear the hijab, which is a cloth that covers their hair, neck, and chest.  For some reason, it has also become important to the police on how the hijab is being worn. There have been stories about the hijab not being tight enough, causing a wisp of a woman’s hair to escape resulting in severe punishment. Sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the crack down –women are just being harassed by the police. 

The story that got the attention of the international media was after a woman, named Mahsa Amini was taken into custody by the Iranian morality police and she died. She was just 22 years old and she died while they held her for not being dressed properly. In protest, women in Iran have poured into the streets, saying, “We’re not taking this anymore.  We’re fighting for our rights.”  It’s one of the biggest movements people have ever seen in Iran. 

In response, the Iranian Islamic Republic has arrested, beaten and even killed at least 233 people as of October 2022 who were demonstrating for women’s rights. All the demonstrators wanted was for the government and society to stop the violence and political repression against women. The government responded with more violence.

If you’re reading this and you’re not a Muslim, your first reaction might be to blame the Islamic religion for this violence. Unfortunately, many people on the Internet are now using this situation as an opportunity to criticize Islam, a religion that they hate. And yet, they haven’t taken the time to read beyond the headlines to really understand what these protestors in Iran are saying. If you research the Quran, Islam’s sacred writings, you will find nothing in it about wearing head coverings or the hijab. In fact, the culture of wearing head coverings to show humility and modesty can be traced back to the early Jewish people thousands of years ago. Wearing a head covering was then adopted culturally by the Christians, and then Islam. This practice did not come from any of these religion’s sacred writings. Rather than being a requirement of a religion, the enforcement of women wearing the hijab was a way for Islamic based governments to repress women. As further proof of their intent, the word hijab literally means partition or separation. So basically, this article of clothing was a way for the authoritarian government to separate women from men.  It really has nothing to do with Islamic beliefs and even if a religious leader construed it to be a requirement for women it still should be a personal choice to wear it or not.      

This is why this protest movement is not against the Islamic religion but about gaining freedom for women, as they want to be able to choose what to wear, how and who they speak to, and what they do in their lives. The protestors are not against people practicing their religion.  Rather they’re against the government forcing everybody to practice one religion and practice it their prescribed way. There’s a big difference between the two. 

This message fits perfectly with the book I’m currently attempting to publish. I’ve written about the importance of being informed and using critical thinking as it relates to tolerance for people’s differing beliefs. Have whatever religion you want. As long as it doesn’t hurt or oppress somebody else, that’s fine. That’s your religion and your beliefs.  This is why theocracies have never been a good idea in the history of the world, because having a government based on a religion (any religion) provides the authoritarian leaders justification to commit unthinkable cruelty on its population all in the name of their god. Once religion becomes a government that mandates what you are to believe – what you have to do and how you have to do it, this crosses the line into oppression – in this case the women living in Iran. And that’s what has led to the protests we are now seeing in that country. As an international community we all must endorse these protests and at the same time use them as a wake- up-call to guard against our own governments being overtaken by one religious’ ideology.