She enters the cafe dressed in black jeans, a short coat of the same color, a backpack on her back and her curly hair in the air. She came by subway, “yes, I’m scared when entering and leaving the station, but I’ve given myself permission to leave the fear behind,” says this young design student who during her childhood also covered herself in black, but with the chador worn by the most religious and traditional women. “I took it off. What I do is an act of liberation,” she says.
She is 22 years old and asks to be called Shirin. What she experienced in 2022 has taught her not to give many details about her identity and go unnoticed so as not to attract attention. Something that has come to characterize the generation, especially the girls, who were at the forefront of the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini: they continue to challenge the system by going without the veil and with their way of dressing, but the majority avoid having too much prominence. Especially with the media. They know that the price to pay is high.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Amnesty International released a statement saying that authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran have launched a “wide-ranging and violent campaign” to enforce the hijab through surveillance, mass car confiscation and humiliation. of the citizen.
Shirin says that many of her university classmates, women and men, have been in prison. Others were expelled. Others have been harassed. “I think we have all learned lessons in this time about what should and should not be done,” says Shirin, who recognizes that she is not the same person after those protests in which she understood that she could not continue turning her back on reality.
He says he was never interested in the news. And he thought that what was happening in Iran or in the world had nothing to do with her. What’s more, she admits that she did not recognize the repression that permeates daily life in the country. She lived in her dream world, only thinking about the designer she wanted to become. “Now I am a very different woman. I have changed my way of thinking. “I am aware of many injustices,” she insists. She learned that she can help change reality with small details. And she became convinced that she is not willing to make concessions if it means going against her freedom, even though she knows it is not easy.
“I’m worried that people will forget what we’ve been through during this time, but I’m also worried about hopelessness. There are many people who have lost hope for the future,” says Shirin. She is critical of them because, looking around her, she points out that before the protests it would have been impossible to see most of the women in the cafe with their heads uncovered. “We have achieved a lot. Everyone knows what we have achieved,” she says.
Rojin is 27 years old and is not afraid to show his face or make his identity public. She has already sacrificed a lot for the fight of women who, like her, also want to have control of her lives. She was detained during the first days of the protests and spent 180 days in prison. “I have been reflecting a lot on what has happened. When I went to prison I knew that what we did would have a great impact on society,” she points out. But in recent months she has been frustrated by seeing clashes between the opposition abroad, who could never agree and are fighting each other.
And also to see that many women, especially older ones, give in to the pressure to put the veil back on. “But I understand them. Fear is something very powerful and many are also pressured by their work or their families,” concludes Rojin. During her days and months in prison she witnessed the diversity of those who, like her, raised her voice against the Islamic Republic. The cells were full of women of all economic conditions and of various ages. There was one who was 16 years old, several who were 50 and 60 years old, but the majority were between 18 and 25 years old. “Many had no idea about politics, they didn’t even know what the word dictator meant, they were only there because they wanted to have the freedom to decide about their lives,” says this woman who has a scale tilted to the right side tattooed on her middle finger. . She does it as a protest against the inequality that women face in Iran.
Each of them lives it daily in different aspects of their lives, but Rojin experienced it to the limit. He is from northern Iran and due to family pressure he married very young. When she decided to get divorced she went to live alone, which angered her father. “She was planning to murder me along with her brother in an honor killing. I managed to leave home on time and came to Tehran, without knowing anyone,” she confesses. She has gone through all kinds of difficulties, although she does not give up. She never hides her smile, although her sad look betrays it.
When we found her, she had short dark hair, a miniskirt, covered her legs with thick stockings and was not carrying any scarf with which she could cover her head. “You have to be patient, changes take time and are painful, but the important thing is not to lose sight of the north,” says this woman who, like many others, barely makes ends meet. Inflation, added to the difficulties in finding work, makes her life uphill. Yesterday she was saying on the phone that she has returned to the town with her mother, she had no choice. She hopes to go to Europe to study.
“I have lost innocence,” says another 21-year-old girl who asks that we call her Sara. “Iran is our home, but we don’t see anything inside it, only that they kill us,” she says. She studies physics in Tehran and explains that the hardest thing has been recognizing that many women, young people like her, and men lost their lives in the protests. “It has been very hard for me to accept that they kill us for asking for our rights,” she explains. Like the rest of the younger girls, she continues to go out on the streets without a veil.
So does Nushin, 20, who is now aware that luck can change at any moment. “But I think I’m brave enough now to understand that, even though we’ve lost things, I’m still alive and I’m still fighting,” he argues. She says that the dead have given her courage to continue, to confront the patrols that want to intimidate unveiled women, but she also acknowledges that she thinks the only option she has in the future is to leave the country, study, see the world. “If there is an opportunity I will return, but I will not sacrifice my life waiting for a change. The price is too high. There is no future in Iran,” he says. She knows it’s a sad decision, but she wants to be honest with herself. She is not the only one, dozens of young people face this debate.