This state representation has been highly effective. Even today, the chador and hijab are the most common markers of Iranian women broadcast in both Western media and Iran's state-run television, IRIB.
Unfortunately, Iranian women's deprivation of one of their primary rights -- the right to wear what they want in public -- has yet to garner attention in the era of 'Islamophobia.' In progressive circles of civil society, debates on hijab and Muslim women's freedom of expression are typically rationalized by their right to wear a burqa in European countries. A consequence of this is that the Iranian government's policy of compulsory hijab is either supported or ignored by cultural relativist apologists. However, if using the same line of reasoning, Europeans can possibly claim that they, too, are preserving European culture by denying Muslim women their right to freedom of expression -- meaning, wearing the hijab.
Depriving women of their basic rights is not a new subject. But when these rights are ignored by social activists in the name of culture or religion we must be alarmed. Now is the time to stop justifying mandatory hijab in the name of religion, nation, country, or culture. It is time to remind ourselves, as women and human rights activists, that when it comes to women's rights, there is no room for appeasement.
“The solution to women’s issues can only be achieved in a free and democratic society in which human energy is liberated, the energy of both women and men together. Our civilization is called human civilization and is not attributed only to men or women.”
