BERLIN, Oct. 8 (DPA/EP) –
The Secretary of State for Culture of Germany, Claudia Roth, has denounced this Saturday the mandatory use of the headscarf in Iran as an authoritarian symbol for women, in statements published by ‘Der Spiegel’.
“The headscarf is a symbol of a deeply authoritarian, corrupt system, an attempt to oppress those who say that the headscarf is a sign of honor and dignity, and that they themselves have long since lost their honor and dignity to through repression, corruption and brutal violence,” Roth said.
At the same time, Roth, of the Greens party, defended the fact that she herself wore a headscarf during past visits to Iran.
The Culture Secretary explained that women’s rights activists had explicitly asked her to go to Iran at the time, to denounce the problems and hear their stories.
“As a feminist, should I have said: ‘There is no way I can wear a scarf, even at the cost of later not being able to fulfill your wish’?”
The way she wore the scarf, she said, was a quiet form of dissent. “It was a silent protest. I was wearing my mother’s silk scarf, similar to what convertible drivers wear, and it slipped off, exposing my hair,” she recalled.
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September sparked fierce protests in Iran. The morality police had detained the young woman in Tehran for her alleged “un-Islamic dress”. She fell into a coma and died in hospital on September 16.
The causes of his death are not clear. While critics believe police brutality is to blame, authorities insist the young woman died of heart failure. Police deny using violence.
