Sofyan Aswad: Sofyan Aswad: "Beyond the veil, a social crisis in Iran"
A number of factors turn the question of veils in Iran into a crisis: most important of these are the politics of the government and social change.
At one point the question of religious and social values confronted the modernity which dominated the lives of younger generations in Iran. While the veil has become a political symbol far beyond the religious sphere, the public removal of it has become a kind of protest which in one way expresses a distancing from what the Iranian government has done.
The case of Mahsa Amini. who died after being arrested by a 'Guidance Patrol' whose purpose is to see to it that the veil is worn and that public behaviour follows strict rules, was the reason for the outbreak of protests which mirror the situation of unrest in the country.
A few days after the protests began I spoke to one of my friends, a professor at the University of Beirut, who came originally from Iran. I asked him why the wearing of the veil has turned into such a crisis.
He says that the governing regime in Iran still only emphasises customs and traditions and keeps on reproducing its old, traditional values, regardless of other developments in the community as a whole. This makes the regime unable to understand, accept, communicate and interact with the modern world.
When the crisis began it revealed the government's lack of understanding for developments in the generations that had grown up in a world unlike that of previous generations.
As for the new generation it is obvious that a large section of it has built up for itself an identity different from the current norm, and it is a generation which challenges values based on religious and social traditions.
Is it just the veil?
It is a matter of making a protest, a trial of the ruling elite and a biting criticism of the state of things. Not only the veil, there are many things that must be examined, the most important of which are: values in the civil community, rules of law, women's rights, freedom of speech, criticism of the government and the rejection of violence.
What next?
The protests in Iran are a concrete indication of the crisis in the relationship between the regime and a large proportion of the people. This crisis demands a change in the political behaviour of the state. This protest is in fact a struggle about Iran's image, and its political and social identity.
I hope that all the parties reach the conclusion that the social changes the Iranian community is witnessing will bring about change in the long run.
But nobody knows how or when the protests will come to an end, he says.
