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Mehrangiz Kar
The anniversary of the tenth presidential election in Iran is approaching. A short while before the election and for the first time, Iranian women were able to appear in the street with a light Hijab and without the bothers of the security forces. They could sing and chant and speak up about their hopes to have a decent life of respects and privileges. After the election results were announced, the world stood watching as they appeared silently, valiantly and in protest alongside the men. In their silent and magnificent presence, the women disrupted the official policy of the regime based on separating the two sexes in the public domain and with their iron will, broke down the facade of deceit and pretence. That wall is forever shaken from the core and in spite of their efforts the regime is not able to rebuild it.
Those lively, hopeful and excited faces were smeared in blood. That bounty of released energy was imprisoned; so ruthlessly that the voice of these tortured, killed and enchained women caused a wave of sensitivity in the international community. Women have thus been able to recreate themselves and their greatness. However, this presence did now flourish suddenly in the arid and scorched land of Iran; it is a continuation of the persistence presence of women protesting the forced veiling that started on March 10, 1979. Roots of this presence came to life and spread at the time when suppression in the name of Islam and revolution began and took women as its first victim. Merely a month had passed since the victory of the men when the women had to empty handedly combat with them over their most basic rights. Indeed women put forth the basis of soft revolution in Iran. U.S. and Europe had not yet discovered this revolution. In this light, background of non-violent conflict in Iran must be researched in the combating of women with forced veiling. Women gifted the green movement with their experience and knowledge of the last 30 years in combating forced veiling.
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