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Iranian women post pictures with their hair out to protest strict hijab laws

Photo from My Stealthy Freedom Facebook page.

Wearing the hijab has been mandatory for women in Iran since 1983, and authorities are notoriously strict with the implementation. Last year alone, Iran’s morality police warned, fined or arrested 3.6 million women for “inappropriate dress.”

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist living in Brooklyn, wants to change this. And in order to do so, she began inviting Iranian women to send in pictures of themselves enjoying their unveiled hair, reports Vox.

Alinejad created a Facebook group titled ‘My Stealthy Freedom’ as a safe haven for women in Iran to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves on. So far, the page has been flooded with thousands of entries, and has over 820-thousand likes.

“Some of those pictures come from young girls saying that they just want to feel the wind in their hair,” said Alinejad. “It’s a simple demand.”

There are even some women sending their pictures in with their headscarves on, but with signs that say, “I believe in Hijab, but hate obligatory Hijab!”

Growing up in Iran, Alinejad describes her brother as “an example of freedom – a symbol of freedom that [she] didn’t have.”

As four women – two with headscarves and two without – pass on the street, Alinejad says, “I love that.”

“Look at how they’re free. They just walk past each other without judging each other – without getting arrested by the morality police. Isn’t that beautiful?

“I want to see this in my own country.”

All of the women in Alinejad’s family wear a hijab, however she realizes that not every family is like hers. “You cannot just hide one side of Iran and show the other side of Iran and say ‘this is Iran.’ This is a lie.

“My mother wants to wear a scarf. I don’t want to wear a scarf. Iran should be for both of us.”

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