Women Stage Flash Mob Protests In Iran's Capital
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
Some women's rights activists on Monday staged flash mobs in Tehran to demand information on the whereabouts of a woman arrested for defying forced hijab.
Iran International
Some women's rights activists on Monday staged flash mobs in Tehran to demand information on the whereabouts of a woman arrested for defying forced hijab.
The women also protested government policies encouraging higher birth rates and limiting family planning.
Images of the flash mobs were shared on social media. The photos showed small groups of women who had covered their faces with placards to hide their identities in several areas of the capital Tehran.
“Where is Sepideh Rashno?” some of the placards the activists carried asked. Rashno is a 28-year-old artist, writer and editor and anti-hijab protester, whose ‘forced confessions’ were aired on state-run television on July 31. Many believe she was tortured and forced to denounce herself and other activists.
“Torture and forced confessions will not stop women’s movement,” another placard read.
She has reportedly been in detention at the IRGC ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison since her arrest on July 16 after a video of her quarrel with a woman enforcing hijab rules went viral on social media. She has not had any contact with her family or access to a lawyer since her arrest except for a short phone call.
Iran’s Supreme Leader claimed Wednesday that the anti-hijab movement is nothing but a Western plot, much like his depiction of all problems as plots by enemies.
On July 12, following a call by women’s rights activists for civil disobedience with the hashtag ‘No2Hijab’ social media exploded with dozens of videos and photo of women unveiling in public.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a speech in late July claimed that wearing the hijab is no impediment to Iranian women’s progress and accused the West of fueling the recent opposition to hijab to harm the regime without referring two women civil disobedience.
The government which is now fully controlled by hardliners has adopted a harsher than usual approach on hijab, amid economic crisis and hardship for tens of millions. Government and military officials have warned the population against disobeying hijab rules.
In the past few months, the morality police hijab enforcement patrols have detained many women, sometimes violently, on the streets and shut down shops, coffee shops and restaurants for not forcing their customers to comply with hijab rules.
In their flash mob action, activists also protested the government's population and family planning policies including a ban on contraceptives, vasectomy and tubectomy, and pre-natal screening for genetic abnormalities and congenital diseases.
“No to forced childbearing”, “A poverty stricken society needs welfare, not more children”, “Ending free pre-natal screening is violence against women”, and “Contraceptives must be provided to women for free and with no hassle”, other placards read.
Government family planning programs – including free contraceptives and vasectomies at governmental healthcare facilities opened in the 1980s – were gradually abandoned over the past ten years with those defending family planning dubbed enemy "infiltrators."
Iran's population has doubled from around 40 million in the early 1980s to 84 million now, but Khamenei has repeatedly stressed that it should rise to at least 150 million to avoid having an elderly population.
A new legislation designed to boost population growth passed by parliament in March outlawed tubectomy, vasectomy, and the free dispensation of contraceptives other than where pregnancy would threaten a woman's health. The health ministry has instructed family health clinics to advise women over-35 to wait only a year before again becoming pregnant and under-35s to wait six months.
While the new law does not include a ban on pre-natal screening, doctors have been advised not to encourage it.
Expediency Council member Mohammad Javad Bahonar said in an interview on Didban Iran website on Sunday, August 14, that it is normal for 30 percent of voters not to show up at the polls, as they might think their participation may not make a difference, but 49 percent was a bad record, and an indications that all doors must be opened for political activity in Iran.
Meanwhile, Bahonar criticized the current Iranian government, which is the outcome of the low-turnout election in 2021, for continuing to make promises although it knows it does not have the capability to fulfil them. Also, in an apparent criticism directed at President Ebrahim Raisi's frequent provincial visits, Bahonar said the president should not think that visiting various regions and expressing sympathy with the underprivileged will solve his problems.
According to Didban Iran, several members of the parliament have also criticized Raisi for his provincial visits and warned that he could be accused of populism. They warned that when the promises made during these visits remain unmet, people will no longer believe what the government says in other instances.
Amid a worsening economic situation since his election, Raisi has made a big show of his provincial visits and has advertised the effort on government media as an important accomplishment. Another public relations tactic has been blaming the economic crisis on his predecessor, while publishing sometimes unsubstantiated and contradictory figures on the economy.
On Sunday, lawmaker Sodayf Badri, said at the parliament that the people are under economic pressure and they no longer trust the lawmakers. Some even accuse the parliament of undermining the people's interests to protect the government, he said.
Explaining the country's economic situation, Bahonar said, "We consume 300 billion euros worth of energy in Iran every year. Consuming energy should eitherlead to welfare or to increasing production. But none of these happen in Iran. We might be able to save 30 percent of this energy without doing any harm to the people's welfare. This 30 percent saving means 100 billion euros can be added to the economy."
Although the figure cited by Bahonar seems exceedingly exaggerated, Iran does provide around 50-60 billion dollars in energy subsidy to citizens, by selling gasoline, natural gas and electricity extremely cheap.
Bahonar reiterated his idea about a bicameral parliament in Iran, a system in which one of the houses would exclusively prioritizes national interests. Currently, he said, various occupational and ethnic groups follow their interests at the Majles.
He regretted that Iran as a country that used to sell $100 billions of oil every year, now has $15 billion per annum through circumventing US sanctions and by selling oil under the counter. “Just imagine that the income of a country with a population of 80 million has dropped from $100 billion to $15 billion.” All the country's economic problems are due to the fact that the government spends 1.5 times the amount of its income. At the same time, we are a 100 billion Euro country that wishes to live like a 500-billion-euro country.
Bahonar criticized the way the government is managing the affairs of the country. He said: "Japan with a population of 160 million has 600 thousands government employees, while Iran has a population of 80 millions and 4 million government employees.