Iranian regime's poster of 50 women in hijabs turns into PR fiasco

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Iranian regime’s poster of 50 women in hijabs turns into PR fiasco

Huge montage in Tehran taken down within 24 hours after protests by those depicted or their relatives

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic Editor
Fri 14 Oct 2022 12.22 BST

The Iranian authorities suffered a PR fiasco after being forced to take down a giant billboard in a central square in Tehran when women in the poster, or their relatives, objected to being depicted as supporters of the government and the compulsory-wearing of the hijab.

The billboard controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was a montage of about 50 Iranian women wearing the hijab under the slogan “Women of my Land”. It was taken down within 24 hours after at least three of the women pictured said they objected to their image being misused.

Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, a multiaward-winning actor was the first to protest, releasing a video. Not wearing the hijab, she said: “I am not considered a woman in a land where young children, little girls and freedom-loving youths are killed in its fields.”

“I am Mahsa’s mother, I am Sarina’s mother. I am the mother of all the children who were killed in this land. I am the mother of all the land of Iran, not a woman in the land of murderers,” she added, referring to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in police custody sparked protests across Iran, and Sarina Esmaeilzadeh, a 16-year-old who Amnesty International has said was killed by security forces at a protest.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/14/iranian-regime-poster-women-in-hijabs-pr-fiasco-taken-down-protests-misuse-of-image

[Scrivener7]

1. I have to say that a) I am surprised the women were even allowed to lodge the protest

and b) that the government acquiesced. This is a really interesting movement. The women seem to have the boundless courage of people who just can't take one more iota of this crap, and the government seems to be truly afraid of them.

I hope I would be as brave in that situation. I hope I never have to find out if I would, though. But one never knows.

[Irish_Dem]

4. I know, it means the government is giving women some space and backing off a bit.

[Chainfire]

3. It is an interesting culture that believes that women are so shameful, that they should be hidden

from public view.

Lest I be accused of calling the kettle black, there are those in the country who work, every day, to make sure that woman are relegated to second class citizens too. The amazing thing is that so many women will vote for them in a couple of weeks.

[Marcuse]

5. It's not that the women are shameful it's that the men aren't expected to control their sexual urge

[IronLionZion]

6. Choice and consent aren't a priority for that regime