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Women

The Power of Civil Disobedience against the Islamic Republic

April 10, 2023
Roghayeh Rezaei
8 min read
Iranian women are passionately continuing their disobedience movement against the draconian hijab laws despite the high price the protesters have paid in the past seven months
Iranian women are passionately continuing their disobedience movement against the draconian hijab laws despite the high price the protesters have paid in the past seven months
In videos shot in public spaces during the Nowruz holidays, we see crowds of women without hijab and women who are dancing to music in the streets.
In videos shot in public spaces during the Nowruz holidays, we see crowds of women without hijab and women who are dancing to music in the streets.
By removing their hijab in public, Iranian women engage in civil disobedience
By removing their hijab in public, Iranian women engage in civil disobedience

Iranian women are passionately continuing their disobedience movement against the draconian hijab laws despite the high price that the protesters have paid in the past seven months.

 In videos from public spaces in Iranian cities during Nowruz holidays, we see crowds of women without hijab and women who are dancing to the music in the streets.

 By removing their hijab in public, many Iranian women are engaged in a daring movement of civil disobedience.

Seven months after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of “morality police”, the government's threats to force mandatory hijab continues. However, videos of the Persian New Year holidays, Nowruz, show that, after months of oppression, imprisonments and the killing of more than 500 protesters, Iranian women are passionately continuing their disobedience movement against the draconian enforcement of hijab laws. By rejoicing and dancing in the streets and by defying hijab rules, they have given a new expression to their demands and the slogans that they shouted throughout the “Woman, Life, Freedom” revolutionary uprising.

But what is civil disobedience? Can civil disobedience overthrow the government? To find answers to these questions, IranWire spoke with Fatemeh Masjedi, a Berlin-based social historian and a women’s rights activist, and Saeed Paivandi, a professor of sociology at the University of Lorraine in Paris.

***

What is civil disobedience and why is it important?

During the holidays marking the start of the Persian New Year on March 21, cities across Iran looked very different from the previous years. Pictures and videos showed crowds of women in public spaces without hijab and women dancing to music in the streets.

Meanwhile, government agents, both uniformed forces or plainclothesmen whom the government calls “promoters of virtue and preventers of vice”, have increased pressure on women who are defying forced hijab and are engaged in civil disobedience. For instance, videos published by governments media outlets show that, in airports, museums or tourist sites, the agents refuse to provide services to women who are not wearing hijab or whose hijab does not meet the strict rules imposed by the government.

According to Paivandi, professor of sociology with the University of Lorraine in Paris, civil disobedience is a peaceful and collective action of protest whose “essence is to disobey laws that the society believes are unjust.” He says that those who participate in civil disobedience are well aware that they might be punished for disobeying these laws.

Masjedi says that what is happening in Iran is the result of a new “social and collective awareness among the new generation, especially women and, of course, the men who accompany them.”

Majedi believes that, by performing acts of civil disobedience following an uprising and nationwide protests, a young generation of Iranians is endeavoring to accustom religious and traditional sections of the society to the freedom of women’s body and to the participation of women in the public arena the way that they want: “In most of these videos of dancing, boys are playing music and singing next to girls who are dancing without hijab. This is a kind of harmony between men and women of the new generation who want to say that a woman’s body can show itself in the public space, that women can enter society without the symbol of Islamic ideology, i.e., hijab. And all this is happening despite morality police, security police and a multitude of other kinds of agents and the huge amount of money spent to control the woman’s body. This is why these performances should be seen as civil disobedience and as a peaceful, collective action against violence to women.”

Civil Disobedience cannot Overthrow the Regime by itself

In most videos of women dancing and removing their hijab, we see citizens chanting the same slogans demanding the fall of the Islamic Republic that they have been using throughout the nationwide protests since September 2022. But it is unlikely that civil disobedience would be enough to topple the regime even though the demands are still the same.

“In countries where there is a minimum amount of democracy, civil disobedience can get some results,” says Paivandi. “In these countries, the governments don’t ignore collective protests and civil disobedience results in a new public awareness, forcing the government to sit at the negotiating table with the opposition to find common solutions or a way to change the law. However, in undemocratic countries where governments refuse to engage in negotiations with the opposition, civil disobedience becomes just one of the ways people can choose to express their protest.”

Paivandi asserts that, simultaneously with civil disobedience, other ways of struggle must be used to achieve the goals and rights that protests have been demanding: “In the particular case of Iran, society has gained a new collective awareness through seven months of protests and has reached a new level of resistance. So if civil disobedience can become nationwide and the resistance continues, it can prepare the ground for other kinds of struggle that would have more fundamental demands. Nowruz was an important test for gauging the resistance by various groups of people and their response to the government’s coercive behavior”.

Paivandi says that, following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement, a new political relationship has emerged between government forces and the people who don’t want the Islamic Republic. “On the one hand, society wants to change the government but, on other hand, the government is not yielding to this fundamental demand and society is not powerful enough to force the government to abdicate. The continuation of this struggle can change the current facts on the ground and we might enter a period in which a war of attrition continues and civil disobedience merges with other forms of protest to achieve a regime change that Iranian society wants.”

Civil Disobedience is also a Revolution in Personal Relationships

Masjedi believes that civil disobedience has triggered a revolution within the traditional and religious layers of society: “Each act of civil disobedience inspires and affects the family, the social network, friends, classmates and neighbors of the person who performs the act”.

She says that the major impact on the human and social networks of the individuals who engage in civil disobedience is on religious and traditional social groups because it forces them to “face the issue of secularism in society.” “This is unavoidable and necessary if they are to get used to seeing women’s bodies in a humane way, necessary to challenge the will of both the government and of those who still want to force women to wear hijab and to control and dominate women’s bodies.”

“This would facilitate the change on how women and their bodies are perceived. It is the courage to keep the flames of Mahsa’s revolutionary uprising that is motivating the youth to once again take to the streets, and this has become a kind of foundation to rebuild civil society, women’s organizations and political and social groups in Iran that have been severely damaged by the repression in the past 40 years, especially in the past decade.”

She points out that acts of civil disobedience are only partially reflected on social media, but “even though changing the views of religious and traditional groups in society is going to take time, they will change in the end. The actors who engage in civil disobedience know that the government would treat them with violence but they still continue doing it.”

Is Civil Disobedience worth the Price in the face of Repression?

Paivandi believes that the answer to this question depends on what forces in society this movement would bring into the arena.

He points out that a high price has already been paid: “In the first six months of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ around 500 to 600 hundred protesters were killed, thousands were injured and some were maimed, especially those who were shot in the eye. More than 20,000 were thrown into prison for a while or are still in prison. Even until now we have paid a heavy price. 

Therefore, if civil disobedience is continuing, it is because of the importance of the goal that society is fighting for, a goal that is so fundamental that society is willing to continue paying for it.”

Masjedi also believes that the new generation that is performing unprecedented and courageous acts of civil disobedience has done its profit-and-loss calculations and decided to continue disobeying the forced hijab rules and resisting the government despite having to pay a high price. “This is a new view of freedom and normal life that holds that life can be liberated from government control. This is what the youth appears to find valuable. Young Iranians know that their actions are bound to have an impact, and these acts will spread and inspire creative ideas for resistance.”

According to Masjedi, “it’s not only about dancing, singing and music. Young people talk about it in their family circles and the families persuade and convince the next circle. In fact, dancing and removing hijab are symbolic acts. It is like issuing a statement and calling on society to come together over the issues of liberating women and restoring their dignity, their freedom and the respect for them.”

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