Young Iranians are filming themselves knocking turbans off clerics’ heads to protest the country’s draconian hijab mandate.
In one clip that has gone viral, a young woman is seen running up to a man in a traditional robe from behind and delivering a powerful blow to the back of his white turban, causing it to fall on the ground.
The woman runs away without looking back, while the bare-headed Muslim clergyman stoops to pick up his headdress.
“Removing the turbans of clerics has turned into an act of protest after regime killed hundreds of innocent protesters,” the caption of the video read.
Another recording from the holy city of Mashhad shows a cleric walking over to pick up his unraveled turban, which had been yanked off his head off camera. A crowd of teens is heard cheering loudly in the background.
Iran’s youngsters have turned to what has been described tongue-in-cheek as a “game of ‘knock the turban off a cleric’” after seven weeks of violent demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Amini died in mid-September three days after being picked up by the morality police for violating the strictly enforced Islamic dress code by wearing her hijab loosely.
Under the country’s laws, women are required to keep their hair completely covered by headscarves and wear loose-fitting clothing.
While Iran’s authorities claimed that Amini died from a heart attack and denied any wrongdoing, her family argued that she had no history of cardiovascular problems and said they were barred from seeing her body before she was buried.
Amini’s death ignited rarely seen displays of defiance from Iran’s high school and college students, with women and girls removing — and sometimes burning — their headscarves in public, and cutting off their hair in shows of protest.
The Basij, volunteers in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and police forces have responded to demonstrations against the country’s theocratic regime by allegedly beating protesters and deploying tear gas to disperse rioters.
Unconfirmed reports have suggested that hundreds of protesters have been killed during the unrest, which has seen schoolgirls and young men chanting “Death to the dictator” and tearing up pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, despite the risk of being imprisoned.
