Iranian women rebel against headscarves, start #MyStealthyFreedom campaign

Iranian women
Image courtesy of the #MystealthyFreedom FB page. Click the photo to go to the page for more images.

Now this is REAL feminism. I love it:

Iranian women are posting pictures of themselves online without headscarves and racking up thousands of Facebook likes in the process, the latest challenge to Tehran’s strict morality laws mandating that women keep their hair covered in public.

A Facebook page called “Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian women” showing hundreds of women without the hijab — a veil that covers a person’s head — has garnered more 142,000 likes. Women have used the hashtag #mystealthyfreedom to post pictures of themselves without headscarves riding bikes, dancing, or even sitting in flower beds, flouting rules that have been in force since the 1979 Revolution.

The page was started by journalistΒ Masih Alinejad, who explained her reasoning in a May 3 post:

“This page is not only for women who are against the hijab, this is also for religious women who wear the hijab but don’t believe it should be enforced on people and think it should be a choice. So you if you are a religious woman who wears a headscarf but doesn’t think it should be enforced, please send in a picture of your friend, family member or daughter not wearing a hijab.”

More power to them! Β  And to think we have women here who feel oppressed because they can’t get “free birth control.” Really!

I’ve done my part and have liked their Facebook page and will help them raise awareness on Twitter, too. Β All it takes is one person to make a change – but fortunately there are many Iranian women asserting themselves in this campaign to fight for the right to walk around with their hair uncovered. Β It’s one step. But it’s a big step. Β These women are bold, brave, beautiful and deserve our support. It’s hard for them to get the message across due to the Iranian government’s censorship of social media websites, so please do your part in helping spread the word worldwide of their movement, too!

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