Forty years under the veil

Iran

The political model originated by the Islamic Revolution that was declared victorious in 1979 has been a unique experiment in the world in which religion, in this case Shiite Islam, has sought to mold a society of eighty million inhabitants under the aesthetic, ideological and behavioral canons professed by its leaders. All men and most of them older.

The male, patriarchal and religious vision has influenced women's lives and their relationship with their bodies, their sexuality and their feelings.

Women's big or small battles for their rights have become one of the most hated enemies of the Islamic Republic.

In recent years, more and more women in Iran defy the strict rules of Islamic dress, and turn the veil that must cover their hair into a weapon to demand rights and freedoms. The way they dress is also another battleground for the Islamic authorities. A large number of women have stopped covering their bodies with the chador (a black dress that completely covers their bodies), to wear a garment where the shapes of their bodies are more visible.

Iranian women try to find psychological and physical spaces of freedom that allow them to overcome the pressure of a society that oppresses their rights, and that exerts great pressure and repression on their bodies.

Many women seek to move away from the big cities when they can to find spaces of freedom, whether in the mountains of Tehran, in rural areas or in natural spaces such as the desert itself, where the control of the morality police is less, and they feel freer to express themselves and relate to men. Any kind of public affectionate relationship between a man and a woman is grounds for arrest by the morality police.

The economic crisis and the pandemic have tightened the government's control over the population, especially women. New generations of women do not want to take a step back and are demanding greater rights and freedoms.

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