Zizi hates the headscarf that the Islamic Republic of Iran is forcing on her. And she wants the world to know that. That’s why she had it filmed as she takes it off: her waist-length hair blowing in the wind, dragging the scarf on the floor, looking over her shoulder, straight into the camera. “Why would I hide my face?” she asks. Her video has encouraged thousands of women to do the same, and each of them is carrying the revolution further, from smartphone to smartphone. Little did the young woman know her video would go viral. When threatened and her family begged her to put it out, she waved it off. “Now is not the time to be afraid.”
She could be jailed for that, or flogged, but how are the vice squad supposed to keep up with that? Across the country, Iranian women are taking off their veils, waving them in the air, shouting: “Women, life, freedom!” And: “Death to the Islamic Republic!” The resistance has gripped more than eighty cities. It runs through all layers and also overcomes language barriers. Persians, Kurds and Baloch women are fighting together against the mullahs’ rule. Fathers, brothers and husbands stand by their side.
