Civil Disobedience of Female Students in the Post-Mahsa Era
Civil Disobedience of Female Students in the Post-Mahsa Era: Female students twirling their headscarves in their hands; a woman writing about how for the first time she rode the subway without a hijab, trembling with fear; a girl saying that in her class, four of them used to wear chadors, but now she’s the only one left.
A veiled woman living abroad who says she is removing her hijab after 30 years and shares her photo; dozens of women and girls who now roam the city’s corners and streets, on foot or in cars, during travel or at home, with scarves on their shoulders without hijabs, sometimes sharing their images on social media, sometimes not.
All of this, according to a media activist, means we are in the post-Mahsa era, an era in which the fear of mandatory hijab has almost ended, whether some like it or not. While previously, the number of women who would remove their scarves in the street could be counted on one hand, now they are countless.
They might not gather or chant slogans, but they walk, which means they are alive and living. It means ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ has achieved its goals. But does this imagery mean that the power structure has easily retreated and accepted the demand for no mandatory hijab?
Certainly not. In recent days, with the reopening of schools, one of the images and videos frequently shared and noticeable is the civil disobedience of female students. Not only do they not wear scarves, disregarding them in school and on the streets, but they also have the courage and bravery to sit in protest in the schoolyard, calling on the school staff to join and support them.
These under-18 teenagers are so bold that they not only boo the education department official or the invited Basiji speaker but also chant against them, and it may even lead to physical confrontation.
It seems that a power marathon has begun between the bearers and agents of this civil disobedience, mainly female students, and the supporters and agents of maintaining the status quo. The school management, likely under pressure from the education department, is forced to increase strictness on students within the school environment using various tools. Outside the school and on the streets, as some videos show, we should expect harsh encounters, sometimes even physical and verbal, between female students and the police or even plainclothes officers.
Government Nihilists
On the other hand, the ruling power, referring to the content of some protest slogans by students or protesting students, has labeled them as foul-mouthed. Yet, they face the question of why, when various insults, threats, and humiliations are directed at others or outsiders from the power tribunes, no one objects or labels them as foul-mouthed.
But now that the bowl of patience of the protesters has overflowed, and after years of peaceful protests and logical slogans, they have turned somewhat towards harsh and radical slogans, which may sometimes contain inappropriate words, the voices of those close to the power have been raised. Some have also pointed to the sexual slogans chanted 44 years ago by revolutionaries against Farah or the Shah’s family.
Alongside this, some so-called revolutionary and principled figures have begun to belittle the protesters and call their demands vulgar. An outspoken conservative university professor said that instead of ‘Woman, Life, Freedom,’ protesters should say ‘Woman, Debauchery, and Prostitution.’ A former parliament member said they want to sleep with someone different every night and graze like animals. Sociologist Mostafa Mehrayin has called these individuals government nihilists or value-empty values.
He wrote that this group of forces in power, who have a respectable appearance, are caught in various corrupt behaviors in their lives and, due to a sense of infinite freedom to do any act or say anything, suffer from a kind of mental illness that can be called moral nihilism, faithlessness, and emptiness of any meaning and world of meaning.
According to him, being afflicted with the disease of foul language and insulting people under the guise of revolutionary values is a defense mechanism for these individuals to endure their own vile and hideous existence, which they cannot bear within themselves. This sociologist believes that ironically, these individuals’ insults to women stem from their longing for love, which they have always been deprived of due to their repulsive existence, whether this love is of God’s grace, a mother’s love, a spouse’s love, a friend’s love, or a person’s love for themselves.
Lay Down Your Gun for Dialogue
In recent days, following the intensification of student protests at universities, especially Sharif University, and the subsequent brutal attacks and arrests of students, we have witnessed demands from power-supporting factions, like the student Basij, asking society and students to turn to dialogue to end the conflict.
Some have reminded that dialogue requires a prepared platform. A faction that has long closed its ears to opposing voices, why and how is it now seeking dialogue, and whether this request is genuine or merely a show to quell the protests.
Others believe that how can one engage in dialogue with someone who holds the tools of physical repression? Dialogue requires a minimum of power equality, especially while arrests continue, some detained students have not been released, and the status of detained journalists remains unclear.
Some IT and internet specialists and staunch opponents of the protection plan are being arrested, and there are still many questions and ambiguities about the death of people like Nika Shakarami. How can one trust the promise and request for dialogue?
Iran Gate has specifically covered the case of Mahsa Amini’s murder. You can view the content by searching the keyword Mahsa Amini.
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