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Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mullahs-biggest-fear-iranian-women-1527271867
The Mullahs' Biggest Fear: Iranian Women
(Wall Street Journal) Masih Alinejad - The Islamic Republic's key vulnerability has always been its oppression of women. Since coming to power in 1979, the theocracy has imposed compulsory hijab laws, requiring women to securely wrap their heads in scarves in public. Over the past four years, however, with little help or notice from Western powers pressing the regime on other fronts, Iranian women have countered the most visible symbol of clerical rule. Last year, we launched White Wednesdays as a weekly street demonstration in which women either publicly take off white headscarves or wear the color in solidarity. The activism is clearly upsetting the regime. In 2014, when our movement began, Iranian police announced that "bad hijab" had led to 3.6 million cases of police intervention, more than any other type of crime. Women used to fear the Islamic Republic; now the Islamic Republic fears its own women.