Freedom is a word with many meanings. Since the era of global decolonization, various movements fighting for freedom have spread worldwide. Moreover, after WW II, fear of tragedies such as massacres, genocide, and disease outbreaks invited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR has brought well significant progress to the social development of world society. Fighting for human rights and freedom is by creating a social movement. According to Britannica, social movement is defined as “a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society’s structure or values”[1].
Most societal structures around the world have gender inequality cultures. Patriarchal culture in the structure of society requires women to fight for equal rights. Known as the Feminist Movement. “Feminism-, is a belief in the political, economic, and cultural equality of women. It is typically separated into three waves: first-wave feminism, dealing with property rights and the right to vote; second-wave feminism, focusing on equality and anti-discrimination, and third-wave feminism, which started in the 1990s as a backlash to the second wave’s perceived privileging of white, straight women”[2]. Generally, feminism is seen as a movement to put an end to every type of sexism, sexist exploitation, and also oppression, to achieve well gender equality in law and practice.
In front of International Law, Feminism-, the women’s movement is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a nutshell, feminism tries to be born free and equal in dignity and rights. As human as the Article 1, women’s rights are human rights. Furthermore, women also have the same rights as men as regulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “The ICCPR keeps three principles; Non-discrimination, which is all rights apply to all people regardless of sex, race, skin color, religion, language, ethnicity, etc; men and women are equal; Immediate Effect, which is States must comply and respect all rights of individuals without exception immediately right after they choose to ratify ICCPR; State Responsibility, which is respect to all civil and political rights is the responsibility of ratifying States”[3].
Although there are UDHR and ICCPR as the fundamental principles. Women’s social movements keep going because oppression against women’s rights continues in several states, such as the liberalist France and the conservative Iran.
France has been through many shapes of states, from the First French Empire to the Fifth French Republic. Its history is long, complex, and full of struggles for liberation. Laïcité or Secularism, is a principle adhered to by the French state. This principle separates religious matters and their influence from public institutions. In the name of Secularism, the French Government has banned the use of various religious attributes in public spaces, such as schools. The government tries to regulate the country, especially in public spaces, by the principles they understand. Creating a space that is not influenced by any religion or belief.
In March 2004, after months of debate, the French parliament voted through a ban on headscarves in schools, outlawing “symbols or clothing that conspicuously demonstrate a pupil’s religious affiliation” [4]. Then in 2010, it banned the niqab, the Islamic full-face veil, in public places such as streets, parks, public transport, and administrative buildings. Of course, there are different views in responding to this ban. This ‘hijab ban’, perhaps for some feminist activists, is considered progress in terms of providing emancipation for Muslim women. However, for Muslim women, this is an oppression of freedom of expression. Violating expression of wearing clothes according to individual beliefs and personal choices. Also violated the UDHR and ICCPR rules.
Ban of religious attributes, especially the hijab/niqab or head covering, gave rise to a resistance movement that protested the regulation to ban it. The hashtag ‘#HandsOffMyHijab’ or ‘#PasToucheAMonHijab’ has become one of the symbolic slogans of resistance to restrictions on the freedom to wear the hijab in France. According to a Reuters report, “the amendment to an ‘anti-separatism’ bill designed to strengthen France’s secular values and which applies to girls under 18 has drawn outrage and prompted an online protest under the hashtag #HandsOffMyHijab that went viral beyond French borders”[5]. Protests against the regulation were also carried out with other actions, such as the women’s football club. “These women are part of the activist group ‘The Hijabeuses’, a collective of female football players fighting for the right to wear a hijab in official matches, which is banned in France” [6]. Women’s movements to protest its regulation faced discrimination by the secular French Government. The situation makes it difficult for women, especially Muslims in France, to obtain their rights.
Different from France’s condition, women in Iran face a situation that is similar but not the same. Mainly, the difference is women in Iran are forced to wear hijab by the Government’s rule. Known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. This country has made regulations requiring women to wear the hijab, by force which was implemented after the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. To enforce Sharia law, Ayatollah Khomeini decreed that all women were required to wear the hijab at work. As for women who do not wear a headscarf, he classifies them as “naked” women. Of course, this regulation has received a lot of criticism from feminist activists, especially from the West.
The Iranian government does not provide the slightest space for women to get relief from wearing the hijab. By the year 2022, a young woman named Masha Amini was arrested by Iranian authorities for violating the mandatory hijab rules. According to the Al-Jazeera report, “She was coming out of a metro station in Tehran with family members when she was arrested by morality police for alleged non-compliance with the country’s mandatory hijab rules that have been in place since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution”[7]. Detained and repressed by the moral police ended in her death.
The case of Masha Amini prompted deeper awareness of women’s rights to freedom. Many women have taken to the streets to protest against regulations forcing the use of the hijab across the nation-wide. The demonstrators also raised the slogan ‘Women, Life, Freedom’. Protest facing challenges from the government. Iranian authorities submitted a draft law and later passed it, making hijab regulations even stricter. The struggle of the women’s movement in Iran is increasingly extreme, not with violence, but with other symbolic actions against this imposition. “A woman at an Iranian university stripped down to her underwear in an apparent act of protest after university security forces reportedly violently stopped her for not wearing a headscarf”[8]. Later, Iranian authorities have arrested the woman.
Perhaps, Muslim women in France believe that Iran is a better place where they can practice their belief to wear hijab without government restraint. Women in Iran may believe differently that France is a better place because there are no forced hijab rules that restrict their freedom. At the same time, both of these raise ambiguities ‘is it permissible for the state to regulate the religious beliefs of its citizens? Is this justified?’. Referring to the ICCPR, article 18 “ Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching”[9]. This means that both France and Iran are violations of women’s rights.
Women should be given freedom over their bodies, to choose what clothes they want to wear, without restrictions and coercion. This freedom must be respected as well as human rights. No culture, be it the secularist culture of France or the conservative culture of Iran, is allowed to restrict the freedom of individuals, especially women.
[1] Social Movement (2024) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-movement (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[2] Feminism’s long history (2022) History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/feminism-womens-history (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[3] Tømte, A. and Riyadi, E. (2024) International human rights and local courts: Human rights interpretation in Indonesia. New York: Routledge.
[4] What has 20 years of banning headscarves done for France? | Rokhaya Diallo (2024) The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/12/ban-headscarves-france-secularism-exclusion-intolerance (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[5] Hands off my hijab! Young Muslim women protest proposed French ban | Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hands-off-my-hijab-young-muslim-women-protest-proposed-french-ban-2021-05-04/ (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[6] Boubaya, S. (2022) Muslim women footballers spar with French government on hijab ban in sport, France 24. Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220211-muslim-women-footballers-spar-with-french-government-on-hijab-ban-in-sport (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[7] Motamedi, M. (2023) Iran: One year after the death of Mahsa Amini, Al Jazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/16/iran-one-year-after-the-death-of-mahsa-amini (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[8] (2024) ABC News. Available at: https://abcnews.go.com/International/woman-strips-underwear-iran-university-apparent-protest/story?id=115441108 (Accessed: 27 November 2024).
[9] United Nations (1976) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
