A while ago, Iranian girl Martha Amini died after being detained by moral police because she did not wear a headscarf in public, which triggered the "anti-headscarf protest movement" sweeping across Iran, and even caused many riots.
protesters not only took off their turban and went to the streets, but also publicly cut their hair angrily and angrily. It is obvious that although the fierce protest was detonated by a turban, in addition to opposing the demands of religion to restrict secular life, they also mixed other uneasiness factors.
For example, multiple rounds of sanctions in the West have exacerbated Iran's economic difficulties, and this incident happened to be an outlet for the public to vent their emotions.
In addition, Iranian officials believe that behind the protests, there are many external forces fermentation and inciting violence.
After all, in Iran, the female headscarf, in addition to its religious meaning, is also a state-regulated anti-Western "symbol".
Streets of Tabriz, Iran - If according to religious standards, most women's headscarfs don't meet the norms
And, to be honest, whether they are ancient Persians or Iranians , compared with other Muslim countries in the Middle East , their lives have always been considered very secular and joyful since ancient times.
Historically, music, clothing, and architectural art in Arab countries and Central Asia were deeply influenced by Persian culture and were considered Iranian students.
Enjoy the worldly joy and has always belonged to the national tradition of Persian .
Moreover, the history of Persian culture is far ahead of the birth of Islamic civilization.
In the 6th century BC, the ancient Persians established the powerful Persian Empire , which captured most areas of the Middle East and Central Asia, which was very powerful.
More than two centuries later, in 334 BC, the Persian Empire was defeated by the Macedonian Empire's Alexander , and then entered a long era of division until 224 AD, when the Sassanid Dynasty unified Persia.
The Sassanid dynasty regarded Zoroastrianism as its national religion.
This is what people often call the Second Persian Empire.
The Sassanian dynasty was very open-minded and even the Jews who were trampled by other nations at the same time could enjoy a relatively equal life within the territory of the empire, and even become the queen of the main palace, or enter the dynasty to serve as a high-ranking official like prime minister.
is based on the Bible story "Esther" movie "One Night with the King" tells the story of Esther, the Jewish Persian queen,
, and women can also inherit their heritage, operate business, and even participate in some public affairs.
Even in the 8th century AD, after the Persians' "Islamization", the change in their beliefs did not affect their national cognition and their love for secular life. The Persians have always enjoyed the secular pleasures of drinking, gorgeous clothes, singing, dancing and music.
Iranian national dance
Similarly, Persians continued to advocate tolerance and diversity, and did not deliberately discriminate or persecute the business-minded people and Jews, and even took the initiative to ask them to serve as the king's business agents; in most eras, Christian pastors were also allowed to preach within their territory.
Through the painting and sculpture art that have been passed down, later people can realize that while the ancient Persians were attentive to be a devout Muslim, all classes were enjoying all the worldly joys without any scruples. Hunting, feasting, romantic love, gorgeous flowers and enjoying the art of singing and dancing...
16th century Banquet scenes in the Safavi Dynasty era of Persia in the 16th century
At this time, Persian women's gowns and headscarves were more of the needs of the natural environment and part of national clothing.
For example, when ancient Jews were in the Middle East earlier, they were dressed in robes and headscarves (picture below).
The Middle East is generally droughtless and rainy and windy, with a large temperature difference between day and night. In ancient times, most of them survived and reproduced in the form of tribal nomadic forms.
So, in the above environment, wearing a lab coat is highly adaptable - different materials can solve the problems of heat dissipation in summer and warmth in winter.
A headscarf and hat can not only protect the sun, but also protect the cold, but also protect the wind and the eyes when dust is raised. It is also an indispensable item for personal use.
So, long before the birth of Islam , almost all ethnic groups in Central Asia-West Asia- North Africa had the custom of wearing robes, hijabs or hats, both men and women.
Pernian women's traditional clothing, very fancy
or this. There is no religious element to dressing in " Quran ", even in " Quran ", the passages about Muslim women's clothing are just to persuade women to cover up their shame in public and avoid thin disclosures, so that everyone knows that you are a good woman and will respect you.
However, different sects in later generations have made different explanations about what specific "blocking" should be used and how much "blocking" should be used.
This creates some rules about wearing a hijab, or for women to mask burqa when they go out.
But even so, modern Persia/Iran has always been relatively open and secular in the entire Islamic cultural circle... From some perspectives, it may be said to be very "vanguard".
For example, the picture below is a noble woman from the Persian Kingdom at the end of the 19th century.
Modern Persians, women regard their strong figure as the most beautiful, and if they wear a little beard, they will be even more charming.
And this eye-catching miniskirt is said to originate from the "alternative aesthetic" of a Persian king.
In 1873, King Nasserding Sha was invited by Russian Tsar Alexander II to visit St. Petersburg and enjoyed the ballet performance by the Royal Russian Theater Troupe. He was fascinated at once. He especially felt that the costumes of the ballet actress "super beautiful".
After returning to China, the willful king began to "promote" this "charming skirt" to people around him. Furthermore, the aesthetics of the royal family quickly spread to the people... For a time, the miniskirt + big thick legs became the most "trendy" outfit for Persian women back then.
Another Persian beauty
. In the Western Christian countries of the same period, except for ballerinas, women in daily life had to hang out long skirts and couldn't even show their ankles.
For example, at the end of the 19th century, some European conservatives strongly opposed women riding bicycles because women shortened their skirts for the convenience of riding bicycles, and their ankles would be exposed during riding. They believed that this seemed very "unfamiliar."
OK, let’s talk about it back to Persia.
At the beginning of the 20th century, after the Persian constitutional revolution , modernization and modernization reform began.
From the constitutional revolution in 1906 to the Islamic revolution in 1979, almost all Persian/Iranian rulers during this period highly praised secular life and opposed the constraints of the teachings on women.
Persian civilian women in the early 20th century also had no custom of wearing burqa
1921, the officer of the Kazar Dynasty, Reza Khan , launched a military coup and became the actual ruler of the country.
1925, Reza Khan simply became the king of the Persian kingdom through the "recommendation" of the Constitutional Assembly, opening up the Pahlavi dynasty era.
In the 1930s, the nazi Germany advocated the rhetoric of " Aryan the noblest" popular in the international community. Therefore, in 1935, the Pahlavi dynasty announced the change of the country's name to "Iran" (the home of the Aryans).
Both rulers of the Pahlavi dynasty were committed to secular reforms and gave women more rights.
Iran's century-old clothing changes, you can see black robes and headscarves. They were not their mainstream outfits. Iranian women have always been very fashionable. By the 1960s, during the period when Pahlavi was passionately promoting the "White Revolution", the illiteracy rate of Iranian women had plummeted to 3%. Iranian military, parliament members, judges and ministers of the cabinet had a certain proportion of female members.
1970s female officer of the Iranian Iranian Air Force shook hands with King Pahlavi at the graduation ceremony
1979 Islamic Revolution, the literacy rate of women under the age of 60 in Iran was close to 99%, and the proportion of girls in college exceeded 60%.
19
1970s on the streets of Tehran
However, under the "prosperity" caused by these "white revolutions", Iranian society is already full of crises.
In order to pursue rapid industrialization, the Pahlavi Dynasty ignored the development of the agricultural economy. Coupled with the unrealistic agricultural policies, the interests of farmers were seriously infringed, which in turn exacerbated the gap between urban and rural areas, and the public grievances accumulated deeper and deeper.
This leads to some farmers entering the city's lack of corresponding professional skills and it is difficult for them to gain a place in the city, and they have become the lowest level of the city.
At the same time, although people in the big cities led by Tehran at that time had already lived a very secular and modern life. Whether it was the fashion of pedestrians or various infrastructure, they were comparable to first-class metropolis in Europe and the United States. They could even reach the fashion that was unveiled in Paris luxury stores in the morning, and they could see it in Tehran in the afternoon.
1970s street fashion women in Tehran
1970s street fashion men in Tehran
At the same time, religious forces are still strong in the middle and lower-class people in Iran and rural areas.
What is embarrassing is that for those "hostile forces", Pahlavi could neither "eliminate the flesh" directly from the "physical" like Turkish Kemal , nor did he have the ability and strategy to properly appease and place them; at the same time, the lives of the royal family and some privileged classes are particularly luxurious and corrupt, and everything is learned from the West...
1967 Queen Farah's crowning ceremony incorporated many Christian ritual elements
At first glance, it seems that this is the crowning life of the European Christian royal family. The only obvious difference is that Europeans cannot be so rich
By the end of the 1970s, oil prices began to plummet again after rising all the way, which directly led to a huge fiscal deficit in the Iranian government, which relies heavily on oil exports, and the domestic unemployment rate broke the record and was accompanied by inflation and soaring prices... But at this time, the upper-level bosses of the Pahlavi regime continued to live a "luxury and degenerate" Western life in a high-profile manner....
Under this situation, religious forces that have mastered a certain mass base all pushed the failure of reform and social contradictions to the secularization and modernization advocated by Pahlavi. Encourage people to return to the "pure and simple" life advocated in the scriptures and find answers to the problem in the scriptures - "No East, No West, Just Islam."
In this way, the priest class took advantage of the dissatisfaction of the majority of the masses, including the vast majority of women, with the Pahlavi dynasty, and elevated religion to a bond that unites the "revolutionary masses" and ideological .
In this context, the Iranians were taught that it was Western thought that made Iranian women lose their traditional virtues. Wearing a hijab is a symbol of returning to Persian traditions, resisting the American puppet Pahlavi government, and rejecting the invasion of Western culture.
is soon, and this statement has been supported by many women in Iran. They all wore headscarves to march on the streets to express their dissatisfaction and protests against the Pahlavi dynasty.
On January 16, 1979, Pahlavi hurriedly boarded a Boeing plane with his family.
Tehran Mehrabad Airport, before King Pahlavi and his wife boarded the plane - this was also the last moment they were in Iran
The plane circled reluctantly over Tehran, turned to the west and left Iranian airspace.
King Pahlavi left his motherland forever.
Pahlavi didn't know that people were rushing to the streets happily, singing and dancing to cheer "revolutionary victory". His statue was being chiseled off and pushed down, and his avatar was also dug out of the banknotes.
The happy people on the streets of Tehran
It is obvious that the choice of the Iranian people back then was, to some extent, very much like an impulse stress response.
The result is that after the Islamic Revolution, many Iranians found it difficult for them to adapt to this "pure and simple" life.
Especially Iranian women who have a high level of education and have experienced the years of Pahlavi's openness compared to other Muslim countries, they were soon stunned.
After the Islamic Revolution, Iranian women took to the streets again to passionately protest the new government's religious laws on dress and headscarves
feminists and priests debate passionately
4 In April 1979, Khomeini eliminated the remnants of Pahlavi and the left-wing forces in the revolutionary ranks, and established the Islamic Republic , which integrates politics and religion.
Then a new constitution was introduced to ensure the absolute dominance of Islam and to start using religion to "guise people's lives."
At this point, all the secular policies of the Pahlavi dynasty were overturned.
In 1984, the Iranian government issued a decree that women must wear headscarves in places of notice. Even female Iranian athletes and even foreigners must abide by this clause, otherwise it will be an "illegal act" and will be punished accordingly.
Foreign female politicians took the initiative to follow the customs
and, in order to ensure that this law complies with Islamic law, Iran has specially set up a post for moral police .
If you don’t wear according to the standards, you will be warned by the moral police or fined. If you are still unsatisfied, you will inevitably be arrested and taken to the cell.
For example, the fuse of this Iran riot, the death of Martha Amini, is suspected to be related to the relevant law enforcement process of the moral police.
However, even in the most conservative period after the Islamic Revolution, the masked burqa worn by Afghan women when they go out is still quite rare in Iran. Black robe but not masked is already considered the most conservative outfit for Iranian women.
This can be referred to the picture below. It is a scene in which Iranian Vice President Ebtkar had a cordial conversation with then President Rouhani at the parliament in March 2020. Ms. Ebtkar's burqa is a very conservative style. On the streets of Iranian cities such as Tehran, it is not common for women who are on duty to dress like this in daily life.
is more common, it is like the picture below.
Moreover, in addition to the basic education branch classes, Iran also works together for men and women in most occasions, such as this pharmacy.
Since 2019, Iranian men and women have been allowed to sit together to watch football matches - the last time was in the Pahlavi era more than 40 years ago.
There are actually couples holding hands
In fact, in addition to the most radical years after the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian government has been trying to find a balance between real secular needs and Islamism for most of the time.
is also because of this. More than 40 years have passed. Although Iran has encountered many strong storms, it has not collapsed as the United States expected.
Many times, relevant departments also turn a blind eye to women's headscarf - it depends on whether you wear it or not. As for whether it wraps your hair, neck and ears, you won't go into it too much.
Iranian flight attendant wears a headscarf like this
So, you can see that in today's urban areas of Iran, women's headscarf can be hung loosely on their heads, and it's no big deal to reveal their hair and ears slightly (such as the picture below).
But if you dare to take it off directly and not wear it, you will be considered a taboo and a moral police will come up to "enforce the law".
Originally, the headscarf in the religious sense was to cover up the "beautiful temptation" that women had, so they required that their hair, ears and neck should be wrapped tightly.
But in today's Iran, most urban women no longer stick to the religious wearing standards, but symbolically hang it, deliberately showing some carefully carved hair.
seems that this outfit that still holds the pipa and half-covers the face is even more "beautiful temptation".
Looks like this, as mentioned earlier, the headscarf, which originally had a strong religious color, in modern Iran, is more like an anti-Western "symbol" stipulated by the state. Wearing or not wearing it has become a stance and ideological issue.
is also because of this. Every protest or riot caused by a headscarf is always believed to be behind the operation of the United States and Israeli . I won’t say much about
, as everyone understands it.
It depends on how double the US media is:
Iranian women are unwilling to wear headscarves - resisting the oppression of tyranny;
Xinjiang ethnic minority women do not wear headscarves - national assimilation!
In fact, if you want to say true freedom, it is not that you must not wear a headscarf; but that women wear it whenever they want, and they can not wear it if they don’t want to.
