A young woman stood on a corner of Enghelab Street in Tehran. She was on top of a utility box, her black hair down to her waist, and she silently waved a white shawl as people walked and drove by. Her silent protest against the compulsory hijab, on December 27, 2017, went viral.
Initially, her fate and identity remained unknown, resulting in the hashtags #Where_Is_She and #GirlOfRevolutionStreet. Thirty-one-year-old Vida Movahed had actually been detained during that time and was released in January, Newsweek reported. Her courageous act of civil disobedience became tinder for the women who have been following her lead. CNN reported last month that at least 29 other women had been arrested following White Wednesdays in the Iranian capital of Tehran. On March 7, an unnamed woman was sentenced to two years in jail for the act, The Guardian reported.
Here’s more about the protest and its origins.
What are White Wednesdays?
White Wednesdays were started by Brooklyn-based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who began the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook campaign in 2014. Women from all over Iran would send pictures of themselves with their hair freely showing in public to be shared on social media. The campaign’s message? Iranian women have the right to choose whether they want to wear the hijab. In 2017, after the reelection of President Hassan Rouhani, Alinejad announced the White Wednesdays movement, inviting Iranian women — and even men — to wear something white on Wednesdays to protest compulsory hijab laws in Iran. This campaign is thought to have been an inspiration for Movahed’s move to completely remove her head scarf in December.
Alinejad takes no credit for what Iranian women are currently doing in Iran and says she’s simply supplying them with a platform to express themselves. In February, she told The New York Times, “We are fighting for our dignity. If you can’t choose what to put on your head, they won’t let you be in charge of what’s in your head, either.”
The movement follows the history of the hijab in Iran.
In Iran, the history of the hijab has been fraught. In an effort to modernize Iran through westernization, ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi banned the hijab in 1936. In 1979, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made the hijab compulsory. Girls were then — and still are — expected to wear the hijab above the age of puberty, as women were subject to laws that mandated what type of clothing was permissible.
In 1979, on International Women’s Day, March 8, more than 100,000 women flooded the streets of the capital to protest the compulsory hijab laws, but ultimately, the new Islamic Republic made it illegal for women to leave the house without the hijab.
How do today’s Iranian women feel about the compulsory hijab?
Many Iranian women are continuing the tradition of those who came before them, protesting for the freedom to choose how to dress, whether it is with or without the hijab. Social media and the powerful images and messages shared within seconds on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are helping to fuel the movement. My Stealthy Freedom's Alinejad told France 24 that women have been pushing back against compulsory hijab laws for four decades. “Now, social media [is] giving them a platform, giving them the power to be loud, to find each other, to realize that they are not alone. So that is actually helping them to be more powerful,” she said.
The civil disobedience of women, which has resulted in a high number of arrests and attacks, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the various ruling powers in Iran, both reformist and hardliner. Recent events seemingly prompted the office of the reformist Rouhani in February to release a 2014 report stating that 49.8% of Iranians are against the compulsory hijab. But other, more conservative factions of the government have gone on full-fledged smear campaigns against Alinejad and others in favor of lifting their veils.
Government forces have furthered their efforts by reportedly changing the flat surfaces of utility boxes, in an attempt to dissuade future protests. Young women are continuing with their efforts despite reported brutal treatment by authorities. According to the New York–based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), Shaparak Shajarizadeh, Shima Babaei, and Azam Jangravi are just a few of the women currently being detained. On February 23, Maryam Shariatmadari was protesting on top of a utility box when a member of the armed forces beat her down and arrested her, according to CHRI.
At this point, what can be said with certainty is that Alinejad has provided a platform for women to express themselves, and Movahed emboldened the many women who have followed in her silent yet deafening protest since December.
Related: Iran Protests: What You Need to Know
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