FEATURE - Culturally Different From Arabic Neighbors, Iranian Youth Seek To Build Own Path

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) After more than five months of continued anti-government protests in Iran, young supporters of the ongoing movement shared with Sputnik how the drive for a return to their country's cultural roots influenced their fight against restrictions.

"From the first day of school, you have to wear a hijab. And you can't wear shirts or trousers. You have to wear something longer. It's something called 'Mukena' ... It's not like a scarf, because nothing (part of your body) is out, including your hair. From seven years old, you have to wear that when you go to school," ElleR, who only wished to be identified by this name over fears of reprisals from Iranian authorities, told Sputnik.

However, as she grew older, ElleR, who is now 33, started to take more interest in her country's original cultural heritage to understand better the issues women were now facing in Iran. She noted that islam came to her country centuries ago through invasions, but its people continued to maintain ties with the Persian culture, speaking Persian language and not Arabic.� �

"They're Arabia and we're Persia. That's the kind of nationalism among Iranians," ElleR said.

More than 40 years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, many younger Iranians like ElleR have started to question the existing restrictions in the country. As more and more young women began to challenge the dress code of wearing a hijab, Iranian authorities deployed the notorious morality police to enforce the rule.

After Mahsa Amini was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not wearing a hijab properly in September last year, the 22-year-old woman died under suspicious circumstances while she was still under police custody.

The tragic death of the young woman became a tipping point in Iran and triggered widespread protests in multiple cities.

Almost six months after the protests started, the younger generation in Iran showed no sign of giving up. More and more young girls took risks by posting dancing videos on TikTok while not wearing a hijab. A number of girls have been arrested by Iranian authorities over such viral videos on TikTok.

During the annual celebration of Chaharshanbe Suri, when people usually danced around the fire to bid farewell to winter, last week, the younger generation once again showed their defiance despite the harsh crackdowns from authorities.

In several popular videos circulated on social media platforms, a number of young Iranian girls could be seen dancing around bonfires with a hijab in their hands and then throwing the hajib into the fire.

Another young girl who joined the protests expressed similar views on the cultural difference between Iran and other neighboring Arabic countries.

"Our traditions and the blood we have is totally different from those in Arabic countries. They just had Islam. But in Iran, Islam is something that is being forced on us, both on girls and boys. Just because we are forced to have a hijab, doesn't mean we are the same. Maybe 20% of people believe in Islam here. Most of us, especially young girls and boys, don't believe in Islam," NR, who only wished to be identified by her initials over fears of reprisals from Iranian authorities, told Sputnik.

As a young female student in Iran, NR shared more details on the kind of restrictions her classmates and her had to experience.

"For girls, the first thing is the uniform. They should wear it all the time from the age of 6-7 when they started going to school. Girls can't put on nail polish, trim their eyebrows or dye their hair, even though they wore scarves that would cover their hair. They would get punished by school principals and won't get the best grades," she said.

NR recalled how one of her friends was punished over such violations.

"One of my friends got 12 out of 20 in this special grade called 'discipline grade,' just because she dyed her hair and trimmed her eyebrows. This grade was based on the rules we have at school and it was one of the most important grades if we wanted to apply to enter universities," she said.

That's also why NR believed it was important for her to join the protests to fight against such inequality. "It's unfair (for the girls). Everything is unfair. That's why we're fighting," she said.

Iranian women have been a force to be reckoned with for a while now, despite strict dress code rules. While Saudi Arabia only lifted the ban on women's rights to drive in 2018, Iranian women were able to pursue careers as a pilot on a commercial airline.

ElleR, who is completing her PhD studies in urban planning and design in Switzerland, pointed out reforms in Iran gradually gave women in the country more freedoms in terms of building a career.

"For example, 20 years ago, they could allow girls to enter the mechanic engineering major. But about 10-15 years ago, they started to allow girls to take on such majors. Now, we have more girls than boys in every major of engineering. About 70-80% of engineers, especially in architecture and robotics, are girls," she said.

ElleR described the kind of prestige a female architect held in Iran.

"For example, if you're a female architect and you go to a building you designed, so many workers there are working for you and you're a woman. You're telling them what to do. Even when you have to wear a hijab, you can wear a long-sleeve shirt and just work like a man. And lately, some of them wouldn't even have a scarf over their heads. I can send you the photos," she said.

The Iranian PhD student shared with Sputnik a number of links to the Instagram (banned as extremist in Russia) profiles of several female architects from Iran. The photos shared by the female Iranian architects showed that, sometimes, they worked at the construction sites with other male workers while not covering their heads fully.

Even in their personal relationships, women in Iran appeared to enjoy more leverage compared to those in neighboring Arabic countries, where women need approval from their husbands or fathers in order to obtain a passport to travel abroad.

"We have a kind of booklet when young people get married. In that booklet, you can have at least 100 conditions before agreeing to get married. They (Iranian women) became aware of that. They would put in conditions like: 'If I want to divorce, it's my right to divorce. If I want to go to work, you can't tell me not to. If I want to continue my studies in universities, you can't stop me.' When the husband signs such conditions and if he violates those conditions, you can just sue him very easily," ElleR said.

The younger generation in Iran hoped that the ongoing protests could also allow them to explore the true cultural identity of the nation, ElleR suggested.

"In the ongoing movement, the cultural essence is more powerful than other things. We call it 'the Iranian Renaissance.' We made a hashtag on it. It's not just about the dark ages from the medieval era. We're going back and making something new out of it. The Iranian youth has the power to make something new for the world, not just for themselves," she said.

Similar to her peers who support the ongoing movement in Iran, ElleR has high hopes for the future of her nation if they could succeed eventually.

Both ElleR and NR said they would continue to support the ongoing movement in Iran for as long as it takes.