On our heads, Iranian government!!!!

[the_future_modernes]

Shakesville explains:

In a new Iranian resistance movement, men are posting pictures of themselves wearing women's head scarves as a political statement in support of Majid Tavakoli, who, days after his arrest for anti-government protesting, was pictured in published news photos wearing a chador, the "black head-to-toe garment worn by Iranian women." The photo was also juxtaposed with a decades-old image of the first president of Iran in its post-revolutionary iteration, Abolhassan Banisadr, who was accused of wearing a women's head scarf to try to evade arrest. Tavakoli has no links to Banisadr, with the exception of their both having been accused of dressing as women to escape authorities (and both of the images being generally regarded as faked propaganda).

The story from CNN:

(CNN) -- A new anti-government movement has sprung up among protesters in Iran -- and now among their supporters in other countries -- with men posting pictures of themselves on the Internet wearing women's head scarves as a political statement.

The movement began in recent days as an online backlash after the arrest of one anti-government protester, Majid Tavakoli. The day after his arrest, an Iranian news agency published a picture of Tavakoli dressed in a chador, a black head-to-toe garment worn by Iranian women.

The government claimed the man had been caught wearing the garment in an attempt to hide himself and avoid arrest, but opposition bloggers insisted that the photo published by the semi-official Fars news agency had been manipulated.


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A blog that focuses on religion and politics in the Muslim world -- Spittoon.org -- interpreted the juxtaposition as being an attempt by the authorities "to humiliate [Tavakoli, using] an old practice by the government to prove to the public that the opposition leaders are 'less than men,' lacking courage and bravery."

One commentator on that site wrote, "It is ironic how [the] head scarf, which was traditionally seen as a symbol of women's oppression ... is now being used by men to show membership in a liberation movement."

A Facebook page created Friday night for Tavakoli exhorts supporters to "condemn the state media's behavior towards Majid Tavakoli," and "act in solidarity ... to affirm his status as a known symbol of integrity."

The page adds that the invitation to wear a head covering is "without connotations to hijab as a religious practice," and that the group's leaders are "against any kind of forced or imposed hijab."

Hijab refers to religiously sanctioned dress for men and women in Islam.

Thus the new protest also speaks to the societal aspect of Iranian women being forced to accept a dress code, according to Dabashi.

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"We Iranian men are late doing this," Dabashi said. "If we did this when rusari was forced on those among our sisters who did not wish to wear it 30 years ago, we would have perhaps not been here today."MORE