The Right to Rape in Iran#MyStealthyFreedomDictatorship: Men have the right to rape unveiled womenFriday, 23 May 2014
Iran's dictatorship is reacting to a new social media campaign calling on women in Iran to submit photos of themselves displaying stealthy acts of freedom.
Hadi Sharifi
Mohabat News - Thousands of women in Iran have shared photos of themselves without the mandatory headscarf (I.e. hijab). The popular action has so far attracted more than 300 thousand users on Facebook and thousands of Twitter users tweeting under the hashtag
#MyStealthyFreedom. The Facebook page was created by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist living in exile in London, England.
Attempting to spread fear among Iranian civil society, *Tasnim, a state-run news agency in Iran controlled and operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), interviewed Hadi Sharifi, a "media activist" (I.e. Regime propaganda activist), who attempted to send the message to campaign supporters: stop, or else.
In the interview Sharifi accused Alinejad of being associated with the CIA and explained that those who have "liked" the campaign's Facebook page did so to stay informed of the developments instead of being aligned or supportive of the cause. Sharifi said that if women feel it is their right to show off their beauty, or appear any which way they desire in society, or reveal their beauty to men, then they should also consider the right of men to enjoy women. He attempted to explain that because it is natural and instinctual for a man to be drawn to the beauty of a woman and seek sex with her, it is a man's right to benefit from what he loves. Sharifi said that when a man forces himself onto a woman because she is "showing off her beauty", this [should not] be considered rape.
Sharifi said since men have not granted women permission to show off their beauty, then men who become aroused by the "nakedness" of women do not need the permission of women to pursue their sexual urges.
*The current owner of Tasnim was the former editor in chief of Fars News Agency, a state-run media agency operated and controlled by the IRGC.
Iranian Women Snap 'Stealthy' Photos Free Of HijabThursday, 08 May 2014
An unveiled young woman stands in front of a sign that reads: "Sisters, observe your hijab." Another with red hair and dark glasses stands next to the ruins of Persepolis, while two others, also sans hijab, dance happily on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Mohabat News - They are among dozens of Iranian women inside the country who have posted their hijab-less photos on a newly launched Facebook page to share their "stealthy" moments of freedom from the veil.
The administrators of the page, titled "Iranian Women's Freedoms Stealthy," say they do not belong to any political group and that the initiative reflects the concerns of Iranian women who face legal and social restrictions.
They say all of the photos and captions posted have been sent by women from all over Iran. Launched on May 3, the page has garnered more than 27,000 likes.
"Have [the authorities] ever considered why women stand in front of signs about the hijab, and instead of observing it, take off their scarves?"
"This is my photo at Tehran's Yas sports center," explains the woman standing next to the hijab sign, one of many signs and posters in Iran promoting the Islamic dress code in public places as a means of protecting women and their values. "Have [the authorities] ever considered why women stand in front of signs about the hijab, and instead of observing it, take off their scarves?"
The caption for the photograph of the woman standing near the Persepolis reads: "Freedoms that last only for a few seconds."
The hijab became compulsory following the 1979 revolution and the creation of the Islamic republic. For more than three decades, women in Iran have been wearing the veil: some voluntarily, many under threat of harassment by police, as well as fines and arrests.
"Freedoms that last only for a few seconds."
Women who have posted their photos without the veil on a public page could be arrested for breaking the law. But they don't seem to care. They appear happy about their brief moments of freedom and defiance.
A young woman posing while holding her pink scarf over a mountain in the conservative city of Isfahan writes that "the look" of some men in the city is worse than the moral police that enforce the hijab."To those who say I should leave the country if I don't want to wear the hijab, I say the hijab wasn't my choice," she writes. "I want to have freedom in my country."
Another woman who posted her picture without the veil while standing atop a mountain in the northwestern city of Tabriz writes about the pleasure of feeling the wind in her hair.
"We keep hoping that this freedom will not be stealthy," she writes./Radio Farda