Thread by @monaeltahawy

When I heard that #MahsaAmini, a Kurdish woman in Iran, died after being in the custody of the “morality police” who'd taken her in because she wasn't wearing a “proper hijab” I thought of other female lives sacrificed on the altar of a piece of cloth feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-…

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1573348776844185600

I thought of the 15 girls who died in a school fire in Saudi Arabia, in 2002, after “morality police” in that country barred them from fleeing the burning building—and kept firefighters from rescuing them—because the girls weren't wearing headscarves & cloaks required in public

No one was put on trial. Parents were silenced. The only concession to the horror was that girls’ education was quietly taken away from the Salafi zealots washingtonpost.com/archive/opinio…

It is no surprise that the Iranian regime accuses the Saudi regime of orchestrating the revolution that has erupted in fury at Mahsa Zhina Amini’s death. Two theocracies so alike in their hatred for women and whose zealotry has for years wrecked lives in the region.

And that is why revolutions for and by women will liberate us all. Feminism liberates everyone. When women are free everyone is free. feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-… #MahsaAminii #Mahsa_Amini۰ #JinJayahAzadi #IranProtests2022

Support my work and share and subscribe.

It's free--no paywall or ads.

If you can pay, it helps to keep it free.

feministgiant.com

What does the revolution have to do with hair?

During the Irish Revolution, both sides would forcibly shave or cut off women’s hair as punishment as well as a way to control women’s bodies.

irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid…

What does hair have to do with the revolution?

The Iranian Revolution was co-opted by the clerics who then claimed as an achievement the mass covering of an entire nation’s women’s hair. #IranProtests2022 #MahsaAminii

Who owns my hair, let alone my body, when a revolution in which women fought alongside men soon after declaring victory, enforced hijab? feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ha… #MahsaAminii #IranProtests2022

What does hair have to do with the revolution?

There is a scene in Abbas Kiarostami’s film Ten when a woman sitting in a car in Tehran traffic gingerly removes her hijab to reveal a shaved head.

When I first saw that scene of the film, in NYC in 2003, I started to cry. It had been 11 years since I stopped wearing hijab and it would be another 17 years until I shaved off my own hair.

I rewatched the film soon after I shaved off my hair and that scene still seized me.

When you shave the hair under that enforced hijab, are you then the revolution of one?

When you rip off that compulsory hijab in public and shave off your hair in public, are you finally completing the revolution that the theocrats stole from you? feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-…

You fucking bet you are.

You signal FUCK YOU, I OWN MY BODY in a way that both Patriarchy and patriarchy understand; oppressor and Oppressor comprehend.

We are more than what’s on our heads and what’s in between our legs. #IranProtests2022 #MahsaAminii

Glory and power to the women in Iran for serving us this challenge:

If women (and men) in one of the most perfect police states are this unscared, then what are you doing to fight your oppressors?

Where is your feminist revolution against your theocrats?

Point to your “morality police” and what they have made compulsory and burn it to the ground. feministgiant.com/p/essay-women-…

Read my essays and share and subscribe.

My newsletter is free--no paywall or ads.

If you can pay, it helps to keep it free.

feministgiant.com