By The Independent — Men in Iran are wearing hijabs in a display of solidarity
with women across the country who are forced to cover their heads
in public.  Wearing a headscarf is strictly enforced by so-called ‘morality
police’ in Iran and has been since the Islamic Revolution in
1979. Women who do not wear a hijab or are deemed to be wearing
‘bad hijab’ by having some of their hair showing face punishments
ranging from fines to imprisonment.  

State-funded adverts appearing on billboards in Iran present
those who do not cover their hair as spoiled and dishonourable.
Women are also told that by not complying, they are putting
themselves at risk of unwanted sexual advances from men.  But women are leading protests against enforced hijab
across the country and some have resorted to shaving their hair in order to
appear in public without wearing a veil. 

Over the last week, a number of men have appeared in photos
wearing a hijab with their wife or female relative next to them
who have their hair uncovered. 

The images come in response to a call by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist and
journalist living in New York, who is urging men to support her
campaign against enforced hijab.

Ms Alinejad runs the My Stealthy Freedom campaign and often shares
pictures of women living in Iran who have enjoyed a moment of
‘stealthy freedom’ by taking their hijab off outside of a
domestic setting. She has asked men to support her campaign with
the #meninhijab hashtag and by sharing pictures with their heads
covered while women pose without hijabs.

Ms Alinejad has received 30 images of men wearing a hijab since
issuing her call on 22 July. She told the
Independent some men are also posting their images
on their Instagram accounts. 

“Most of these men are living inside Iran and they have witnessed
how their female relatives have been suffering at the hands of
the morality police and humiliation of enforced hijab,” she
said. 

“For years, from childhood to womanhood, we’ve been forced to
wear the compulsory headscarf and for years we have had to endure
the loss of our dignity. Many men have gotten used to seeing
women in compulsory hijab every day and you think that is normal.
But for millions of Iranian women, this compulsory hijab is an
insult to their dignity. 

“In our society, a woman’s existence and identity is justified by
a man’s integrity, and in many cases the teachings of a religious
authority or government officials influence a man’s misguided
sense of ownership over women. So I thought it would be fantastic
to invite men to support women’s rights.” 

One man sent in a picture of himself [above] wearing his cousin’s
headscarf. In the caption, he wrote: “When my female cousins saw
that I was wearing their headscarf, they couldn’t stop laughing.
I asked them, does it look so funny on me? I really love and
respect my cousins. I think that one should not talk about
freedom if she/he supports the idea of restricting other people’s
freedom. If only hijab were the only problem in our country, as
the authorities would like us to believe. It is as if they have
hypnotised our brains with a black piece of cloth and they only
want us to believe that hijab is the most important issue in our
country.”  

 

Another described how wearing his mother’s niqab reminds him of
the freedom he was afforded as a man that was denied to her until
her death. “When the Islamic Revolution took place, my mother
started wearing hijab because it was compulsory. And she never
believed in hijab. In Khuzestan’s hot summers she was forced to
go out in this attire. My mother died and only her clothes are
left for me as a keepsake. I sometimes put her clothes on and
remember those hot summer days when she would go out shopping and
when she returned, due to the heat, she didn’t even have the
energy to speak. 

“I was always ashamed for my mother and my sisters. I was
against hijab and my father and brothers also felt the same way.
It’s very tough to go out in such clothing in the hot weather of
Ahvaz – it’s indescribable.”

Read the original article on The Independent. Copyright 2016. Follow The Independent on Twitter.