Daily Times

Not much seems to have changed for Iranian women in the year since the heart-wrenching death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of religious police over allegedly violating the strict dress code had sent shockwaves around the world.

On Saturday, the Iranian authorities briefly detained Ms Amini’s father, warning her against the idea of a memorial. But while the deployment of forces could have prevented the family from grieving their loss, the issue of hijab and women’s rights sits at the centre of all demonstrations organised within and outside Iran. There are reports of an increasing number of checkpoints and an abysmally slow internet but just as noticeable presence of women defying the mandatory regulations on covering hair.

An extraordinary crackdown on all forms of dissent by a country that does not believe in showing weakness was quick to follow suit. By the time, street protests died down, human rights organisations claimed more than 500 deaths, with at least 70 minors. Thousands more were arrested and their families harassed. The widespread usage of surveillance cameras to catch anyone flouting the state-officiated way of how women should dress and behave in public carries an Orwellian aftertaste. Whatsoever was transpiring in Iran gave a whiff of a state waging a war upon itself to satisfy its own ego.

Whether a country ruled by men likes to believe it or not, no power on earth can silence or make half of its population invisible to the public eye. Sooner rather than later, the sacrifices rendered by Amani and countless others like her to ensure they enjoy their fundamental rights to quality living would pay off.

The masses’ perception of the government is fast changing and they cannot hold on to their outdated ideas about the role of women for long. The anger rages on just as ferociously as women continue to find new ways of defying the order. *