Protests against compulsory hijab trigger debate in Iran
A protest by Iranian women against rules mandating hijab have divided citizens.
On Jan. 30, a group of women in Tehran protested the country's compulsory hijab rules by taking off their scarves in public and holding them up on sticks.
The protest led to a series of reactions from both officials and analysts.
Abbas Abdi, a Reformist analyst, said Jan. 29: “The events of the past few days … have made [the start of] a discussion on hijab necessary. It wasn’t possible to discuss and speak about this issue for a long time, and it had become a taboo.”
“We should judge [this issue] fairly. While a large number of [high-ranking] clerics know the interest rates that banks have set as usury, and this has been continuing for 40 years for any reason, why should we insist on issues that haven’t been addressed in the Quran explicitly, and no disapproval of [not wearing a hijab is in the Quran]. [We can’t] enforce a part of [Islam] and not enforce another part of it. This is a defeated experience, and it is better not to do that again,” wrote Abdi in the Reformist Etemaad newspaper.
