It is 40 years since the Islamic Revolution turned a relatively modern and secular country into a totalitarian, terror-funding theocracy. Iran’s descent into religious zealotry and isolationism has been a tragedy not just for Iranians but for the region and the world.
Iranian women fought fiercely against the mullahs and their backward notions of modesty, morality and sharia which would become enshrined in law. About 100,000 women took to the streets in 1979 to march against compulsory hijab and other discriminatory laws.
The women were met with counter protests from Islamist men and several female protesters were stabbed. Ultimately, they lost the battle but they have never stopped fighting.
Forty years later, Iranian women continue to risk their life and liberty by campaigning against the draconian hijab laws and other regulations steeped in misogyny. To this day Iranian women are arrested, beaten and imprisoned for refusing to veil.
Meanwhile, Western feminists, including thousands of Australian women, took part in the Women’s March led by sharia advocate Linda Sarsour. The movement also celebrated the hijab as a symbol of diversity, ignoring the plight of millions of women forced to conform to oppressive modesty laws.
Iran in the 1960s and 1970s looked nothing like what you see now. Looking back at family photo albums and images of pre-revolution Iran can be a depressing exercise: images of smiling unveiled women mixing freely with men in public, clad in bikinis at the beach or just posing on a car bonnet after a game of badminton.
A different world from present-day Iran where women are not even allowed in sporting stadiums to watch men play.
Read the article by Rita Panahi in the Herald Sun.