I understand why opponents of the Iranian regime want to compare it to the Taliban but I think it’s really deceptive to describe the recent crackdown against women’s rights as the “Talibanization” of the government there. I think the Taliban, although made up of radical Sunnis rather than Shiites, took a lot of inspiration of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Whatever the causal direction, both political movements are in love with the hijab.
As director of the Center for Middle East Studies Nader Hashemi explains, over the years enforcement of Iran’s 1983 women’s dress code has been enforced with varying levels of severity.
Reformist governments discouraged the morality police—the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol”—from harassing women, while hard-liners did the opposite, viewing this show of force against women as a non-negotiable principle of Iran’s theocratic regime.
As of late, hijab enforcement has been at or near an all-time high. This, in turn, has spurred an increase in civil disobedience. These developments predated the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurd visiting Teheran, who was beaten to death by the morality police for “insufficient hijab.”
No one could have predicted when she left her home in Iran’s northern Kurdistan province earlier this month to visit relatives in Tehran that her death would lead to national protests, rocking the Islamic Republic to its core while generating massive international media coverage…While the precise timing of the protests in Iran was unpredictable, on closer examination, a societal explosion of this nature should have been expected.
Iranian opponents of the compulsory hijab tend not to argue against the hijab in general but insist it should be a matter of personal choice. I think that’s correct both as a strategy and on the merits. However, dress codes are not the only area of concern for women’s rights in Iran. As Mr. Amini details at some length, women are strongly discouraged from engaging in many activities, including playing music and dancing.
American and British meddling in Iran helped bring about the 1979 Islamic Revolution, so as an American I’m reluctant to tell Iranians how to rid themselves of this terrible regime. Still, I hope they succeed, and not primarily because it might benefit America. I want them to succeed because I want Iranians to have a better life.
The people taking to the streets now won’t benefit from open American support, but the whole world should be sympathetic to their cause. The Islamic government of the Iran has always been a far worse influence than the Taliban.
