Diversity and the whip

BORDER CROSSINGS Op-ed by Katja Gentinetta, published at PRAGMATICUS

While women in Iran who reject the hijab are mercilessly persecuted, others pay homage to this head covering. It is a sign of emancipation and diversity. This once again shows the spirit of rampant wokism.

Two things I learned while researching this column: there are vending machines for flogging in Iran.And on 1 February, people (and women?) celebrated World Hijab Day. What am I writing about? About the fact that for about half a year now since the day when Jina Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iranian authorities for having „too much visible hair“, thousands of women in Iran have taken to the streets. They take off their headscarves, many cut their hair – to fight for nothing but their right to be women, to be free and to live.: „women, life, freedom“. Not infrequently, they – like the men who take to the streets with them – pay for it with prison, torture, death. Since 16 September last year, over 2,300 protests have been documented across the country. Organisations monitoring events on the ground estimate over 500 deaths and close to 20,000 arrests. So it takes courage to fight for freedomin Iran: the courage to die. The fact that the refusal to wear the hijab is not simply a symbol but is at the heart of the protests is anything but a coincidence. With the proclamation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, head covering for women was introduced as a compulsory requirement, and this was gradually reinforced: through tighter regulations and even more rigid punishments. German-Iranian Natalie Amiri describes, for example, the fate of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the renowned human rights lawyer from Tehran, who received the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award) for her work. In 2018, she was sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes – for „sinfully appearing without a headscarf“, „disturbing public order“, „espionage“ and „fomenting prostitution“. Her clients were women who fought against the headscarf law, or those who were political opponents and religious minorities. Amiri does not say whether the lawyer was whipped mechanically or manually. However, there are enough examples of public flogging of women. The machines are more likely to be used for standard punishments, such as drinking alcohol in one’s own home. The sinners are then tied to the machine for 80 lashes, while the next ones outside have to listen and count until their turn comes.

More understanding for Islam?

While only ten protests against the regime were recorded in Iran on 1 February – down from 115 on 15 November, one of the high points of the protests – the rest of the world was supposed to celebrate World Hijab Day. The day was created by Muslim American Nazma Khan in 2013 to promote religious understanding and tolerance. According to its supporters , the day is meant to „promote a better understanding of Islam and its principles of modesty, respect for others and justice for all“ and to „celebrate diversity“ and „oppose discrimination“. This is because the perception of this head and neck covering is based on many prejudices and misinformation. The hijab allows women to be „self-confident“ and „independent“ while at the same time professing their faith. It is explained that the hijab is often worn in public, along with the abaya, the loose, body-length dress, to express modesty and „protect oneself from rape“.  The blog entries also contain meticulous instructions on how to put it on, so that everyone has the opportunity to try it out. I will leave it at these quotes. They are questionable enough in view of the conditions described, and every single sentence should feel like a lashing to Iranians and probably also to Afghans and other women who are under similar duress. How can it be that more and more parts of Western, liberal, democratic societies are in favour of „tolerance“ of this freedom-robbing headgear, even welcoming it as a sign of female autonomy? 

From woke to wokism 

There are innumerable justifications and defences of this „garment“. Such explanations are heard primarily from those who self-identify as  „woke“. They are convinced that everything and anything has its justification and cannot be judged, let alone doubted or condemned by anyone. However, wokeness is no longer just an honourable and courageous basic attitude that is „alert“ to possible forms of discrimination and points them out in order to avoid them in the future. It has congealed into radical „wokism“: an ideology that cannot be  impressed by any reality. From the perspective of this worldview, women’s veils are  therefore a sign of their autonomy because they wear it voluntarily. The fact that this alleged voluntariness serves to protect them from men, or more precisely: to protect men from themselves, and is justified with the Koran, apparently does not detract from this voluntariness. According to Wokism, anyone who cannot comprehend this argumentation is trapped in their white, western, racist and imperialist attitude and thus cannot understand this peaceful, tolerant and respectful culture at all or is simply too stupid for consistent thinking. The Iranian regime can only rejoice at such comments, and the Islamists worldwide thank them. The victims are  those women who risk their lives in Iran and other countries in their fight for freedom and who, if they succeed in fleeing to the West, find no support and contrary to their hopes, have to justify their fight against the headscarf here. The protests in Iran are dying down. The price is high; each protest march is very likely also a walk towards the slaughterhouse. Ultimately, only the Iranian people themselves can force a regime change. But only we can put an end to the mental insanity by neither misjudging nor distorting nor glorifying reality.