Women activists Iran all over are defiantly removing their veil [1] to protest governmental discrimination against women. The bilingual “آزادی های یواشکی زنان در ایران [2]” or “Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women” campaign counts already near 320,000 supporters with just two months of existence. The campaign features Iranian women from all over the country removing their veil, an act for which they may face severe repercussions under Iran's Article 638 [3] which states: “Women, who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or a fine of fifty thousand to five hundred Rials.”
Some chose to hide their face, and other chose to show it.
In this video, shared on Stealthy Freedom, a woman chooses to walk from her house to a nearby bank, without her scarf:
She explains:
My husband recorded this video of me in which I walk the distance between our house door and the nearby Mellat bank. People's reactions were marvelous. A man took hold of the hand of the woman with whom he was walking and changed their direction. You an see them a little bit in the video. A shop keeper asks whether we are recording it for a satellite TV channel. My husband talks to him in the end and this makes the video less stealth.
Here are more examples of other women who defy the ban – in a desert, by the sea, near a lake and on a railway.
The campaign seeks to remind us that it is not an anti-veil campaign, but rather a pro-choice one.
As to the concept of demanding freedom in a stealthy way, Nasrin Sotoudeh, the human rights lawyer who spent 3 years in prison for defending female attorney clients, women's rights and prisoners’ rights in general, had something different to say (click for full message):