Iranian activist’s draws international human rights award

Masih Alinejad will receive the Women's Rights Award at the 2015 Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy.

By: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours Staff Reporter, Published on Mon Feb 23 2015
It all started with a Facebook photo.

When Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad posted a photograph of herself online without a headscarf, she didn't expect an outpouring of support — or that other Iranian women would want to do the same.

"I was totally surprised," Alinejad told the Star in a telephone interview from Geneva, where she'll receive the inaugural Women's Rights Award at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on Tuesday.

"I thought: These women need their own platform. They want to express themselves (and) they don't have any voice inside Iran."

Bolstered by online messages of support, Alinejad created the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook page in May of last year.

There, she uploads photographs of Iranian women without their hijabs, alongside personal messages from the women themselves.

Examples from the My Stealthy Freedom Facebook page

Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the government made wearing a headscarf mandatory for women in public places. Local authorities have since attempted to control how women wear them, favoring versions that cover more hair and skin.

The Facebook page — more than simply a protest against government control of women — has become a means to amplify women's voices, and to explore broader issues of freedom and human rights in Iran.

While the vast majority of submissions come from women in Iran, Alinejad said she has also received photos from Afghanistan and across Europe.

The page has garnered more than 767,000 likes since its creation.
Now living in New York, Alinejad said she's not opposed to the hijab per se, but to edicts that force girls as young as 7 to wear it.

"This piece of cloth, the headscarf, is going to be like a chain (choking) the necks of Iranian women when it's in the hands of (the) Iranian government," she said.

"I'm not against hijab . . . I want to be in Iran with my sister and mother, who wear hijab, but with the same freedom," she said.

"There are a lot of Iranian women who protest and put themselves in danger by protesting against the hijab. Compulsory hijab is not our culture; it's a discriminatory law," Alinejad said.
"Saying no to compulsory hijab is the first step for women to have full equality. . . I want to get the attention of the world to think about it," she said.

The Geneva conference is sponsored by 20 global human-rights organizations, who awarded Alinejad the inaugural prize "for giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom and equality."

The 38-year-old left Iran in 2009 after, she says, being intimidated by government officials for reporting on the killing of protesters during pro-democracy rallies in Tehran.

About a dozen other human rights advocates will speak at the summit Tuesday, including North Korean defectors, leaders of the Hong Kong student protests, and Cuban human rights activists.

Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi — sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Saudi clerics — will receive the Courage Award in absentia.