Flag of Honour: Iranian women hoist chopped hair on stick as most powerful symbol of dissent. We call on women and men around the world to show solidarity #hairflag #MahsaAmini #Hijab #GenderApartheid

Removing hijab is a punishable crime in Iran.
 

Hair flag, protest sign of the murdered Iranian young woman Mahsa Amini

"Massive protests are being carried out in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her detention by country’s morality police. In rage over the incident, female agitators cut their hair and burnt hijabs to express their anger over veiling of women." 

World

Female agitators in Iran have cut their hair and burnt hijabs in protests against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She was detained by country's morality police on 13 September and after three days she died

FP Staff September 21, 2022

When did Mahsa Amini die?

Mahsa Amini was on a visit to Tehran with her family in western Kurdish region when she was detained on 13 September by Iran's mortality police. She collapsed at the police station and died three days later.

Why did police detain Mahsa Amini?

According to a report by news agency The Associated Press, police detained Amini over wearing her hijab "too loosely".

https://www.firstpost.com/world/flag-of-honour-iranian-women-hoist-chopped-hair-on-stick-as-most-powerful-symbol-of-dissent-11304321.html

CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour declined to wear a head scarf in front of Iran's president, walking away from the interview amid ongoing hijab protests over the death of Mahsa Amini

• CNN's Christiane Amanpour walked away from a long-anticipated interview with Iran's president.
• The anchor "politely declined" to wear a head scarf since the interview took place on US soil.
• Her decision follows a history of women journalists declining to wear the clothing for interviews.
  

https://www.businessinsider.com/christiane-amanpour-refused-to-wear-head-scarf-for-irans-president-2022-9

Christiane Amanpour at 67th Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel New York, NY USA June 16, 2008

 

American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib: I stand in solidarity with the #IranProtests as they fight for a woman's right to bodily autonomy and against police brutality in the wake of the horrifying murder of #MahsaAmini

What Must Be Said...

the poem

by Günter Grass

What must be said

Why have I kept silent, held back so long,
on something openly practiced in
war games, at the end of which those of us
who survive will at best be footnotes?
It's the alleged right to a first strike
that could destroy an Iranian people
subjugated by a loudmouth
and gathered in organized rallies,
because an atom bomb may be being
developed within his arc of power.
Yet why do I hesitate to name
that other land in which
for years—although kept secret—
a growing nuclear power has existed
beyond supervision or verification,
subject to no inspection of any kind?
This general silence on the facts,
before which my own silence has bowed,
seems to me a troubling lie, and compels
me toward a likely punishment
the moment it's flouted:
the verdict "Anti-semitism" falls easily.
But now that my own country,
brought in time after time
for questioning about its own crimes,
profound and beyond compare,
is said to be the departure point,
(on what is merely business,
though easily declared an act of reparation)
for yet another submarine equipped
to transport nuclear warheads
to Israel,  where not a single atom bomb
has yet been proved to exist, with fear alone
the only evidence, I'll say what must be said.
But why have I kept silent till now?
Because I thought my own origins,
Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
meant I could not expect Israel, a land
to which I am, and always will be, attached,
to accept this open declaration of the truth.
Why only now, grown old,
and with what ink remains, do I say:
Israel's atomic power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what must be said
may be too late tomorrow;
and because—burdend enough as Germans—
we may be providing material for a crime
that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
wil not be expunged by any
of the usual excuses.
And granted: I've broken my silence
because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;
and I hope too that many may be freed
from their silence, may demand
that those responsible for the open danger
we face renounce the use of force,
may insist that the governments of
both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
free and open inspection of
the nuclear potential and capability of both.
No other course offers help
to Israelis and Palestinians alike,
to all those living side by side in emnity
in this region occupied by illusions,
and ultimately, to all of us.

--Günter Grass
Translated by Breon Mitchell

 Günter Grass and changing German attitudes towards Israel

Günter Grass's Israel poem provokes outrage

Germany's most celebrated writer's lyrical warning of a looming Israeli aggression against Iran triggers international row