Iran’s digital surveillance regime

Mahsa’s death set off against the mandatory hijab and the so-called “morality police” that made international headlines. The bravery of women, often leading the charge, cannot be overstated. The Iranian regime responded to the protests with . Human rights organizations Equality Now, Femena and the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights, described these inhumane punishments and other human rights abuses in their joint to the UN Human Rights Committee, published in anticipation of the anniversary of Amini’s death.

In order to identify and punish dissidents, it has employed a sophisticated apparatus. The controversial new is an example of both. The 70-article bill prescribes harsher penalties for women as well as severe sanctions against public figures, businesses and service providers who support them. The bill proposes the use of artificial intelligence to enforce dress code violations — a disturbing manifestation of gender-based persecution.

Iran’s Mahsa Revolution One Year On

Digital technology has been a two-edged sword for Iranians: the same technology that has the potential to empower voices is being used to silence them. Using advanced facial recognition software and tracking online interactions, the government those who dare to dissent. This technological might is disproportionately used against women, whose demands for equal rights are seen as direct threats to the state’s ideological foundation.

It’s not just about cameras on street corners or drones in the sky. The real Orwellian nightmare lies in the shadows of the internet. The government monitors popular platforms and can intercept traffic on encrypted messaging apps, which protesters often rely on for organizing. , and other ordinary citizens face intimidation, arrest or worse for simply expressing their opinions online.

Perhaps most disturbing is the state’s increasingly invasive eye into private spaces — the cars and walking routes of private citizens. In a chilling testament to this, a spokesman for Iran’s police boasted that over a million text message warnings had been sent to women over the span of just two months, as detailed by a harrowing from Amnesty International. Warnings for what? Being unveiled in their own cars. In over 133,000 cases, police used text messages to order women not to use their vehicles, and they sent over 4,000 “repeat offenders” to court.

From Iran to the world: an international call to action

Digital rights are, at their core, human rights. A society where individuals cannot communicate freely, privately and securely is one where fundamental freedoms are under assault. 

Digital rights are connected to the right to peaceful protests in multiple ways. Encrypted communication tools can offer activists and protesters a way to communicate without the fear of government interception or retribution. When mainstream media is censored or muzzled, social media platforms can allow for the rapid dissemination of information, rallying supporters for a cause. And the digital realm offers an expansive library of resources on peaceful protest tactics, rights awareness and international solidarity efforts.

Iran is far from the only regime restricting digital freedoms while using the same digital technology to suppress dissent or to surveil its citizens. In India, for example, police have made use of an that allows citizens to turn their private CCTV systems over to police use, while in China mass surveillance has been used to gather information about the movements and activities of private individuals in a form of “.” Across all these examples, there is evidence that surveillance and infringement on privacy rights disproportionately target individuals and groups whose make them vulnerable, such as women or minorities, or whose challenge the status quo. 

But here lies the challenge: As governments like these become more adept at quelling online dissent, how can activists stay a step ahead?

The international community can play a crucial role. We can pressure tech companies to safeguard user data and prioritize end-to-end encryption. We can counsel digital rights organizations and civil society on the threats posed by state-led digital surveillance and censorship and the implications of the technology being produced. Most importantly, as a global community, we can consistently spotlight abuses, ensuring governments understand that the world is watching. Regulation of the digital space along human rights principles will ensure that this does not become a new environment in which Iranian women, or any others, are vulnerable to abuse and harm.

While the Iranian government’s tactics are emblematic of a more significant global issue, the world must remember and uplift the unique bravery of Iran’s women, who stand tall even when shadows loom large. For Mahsa and countless others like her, we must persist in our shared fight for digital and human rights. Their courage deserves nothing less. 

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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India Disappoints Its Friends and Admirers

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The ruling dispensation in the Indian state of Karnataka has invoked Section 133(2) of the . This section says that the “State Government may give such directions to any educational institution or tutorial institution as in its opinion are necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of this Act … [and] such institution shall comply with every such direction.”

Claims

On February 5, the ruling dispensation in Karnataka led to a being issued by Padmini S.N., under-secretary of the Education Department of Karnataka, requiring institutions to enforce particular provisions.

First, as per the letter, students must wear a uniform that has been selected by an authority, such as college committees or administrative boards. Second, if the administrative committee has not issued a mandatory dress code, then “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn.” Third, the letter the case of Asha Ranjan vs. State of Bihar and Ors in 2017. It claims that the Supreme Court “accepted the balance test where competing interests are involved and has taken a view that individual interest must yield to the larger public interest.” Fourth, the letter says that the ban on wearing a hijab inside educational institutions is not in violation of Article 25 of the onstitution.

Contesting the Claims

Yet these claims are contestable. First, school management could introduce a uniform for students that is guided by the needs of education and the constitution. Education is concerned with the teaching-learning process. The sartorial choices of students or even teachers do not have any relevance to this process. In fact, preventing students from choosing what they want to wear may impede the fundamental right to education. Further, it cannot be logically argued that the sartorial choice of students impedes the integrity of the teaching-learning process.

Second, it is absurd to claim that clothes can impact equality, integrity and public order. Education is concerned with enhancing the ability of students to participate in social life after they graduate. This includes joining the labor force, participating in the political process, and building and sustaining communities. Inclusive development does not require all people to be part of sartorial (or any other type of) homogeneity, but it does need their participation in socially productive activities. Homogeneity is antithetical to equality with diversity. After all, the of India is “unity in diversity,” not unity before diversity.

Furthermore, claiming that sartorial choices such as wearing a hijab will disrupt public law and order effectively serves as a dog whistle for vigilantes. When these vigilantes engage in actions that undermine public law and order, the original claim is thereby validated.

Third, the Supreme Court, in the case of Asha Ranjan vs. State of Bihar and Ors, argued that there could be conflict between the legal rights of two individuals. In such an event, the interest of the wider community would be used to determine whose rights are prioritized. Yet the individual sartorial choices of students or teachers neither undermine the rights of others nor affect the public. Thus, in this case, the balance test is not applicable since there are no conflicts between individuals with regard to their rights as guaranteed by Article 21 of the constitution.

Fourth, seeking to relate the ban on wearing a hijab (or the clothing choices of students or teachers) solely with Article 25 is legally untenable. In fact, if this standalone appeal to Article 25 of the constitution is made, then it leaves the door open to define religious or cultural practices as being more or less essential to the definition of a religion or culture. Doing so in this current case would directly impact the right to education of some Muslim female students.

The key issue is whether the sartorial choices of students undermine the integrity of the teaching-learning process. The only logical answer is no. The choices of students and teachers are connected to the right to seek education under Article 21-A and the right to dignity under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The right to practice religion or culture, as guaranteed by Article 25 in the present case regarding sartorial choice, does not subvert the teaching-learning process. Therefore, Article 25, when read with Articles 21 and 21-A, demonstrates the legal untenability of the ruling dispensation in Karnataka.

Why Now?

But there is a fundamental question that arises from the ban on wearing a hijab. Why are such issues being raised in the first place? On the one hand, it is undeniable that the ruling dispensation in Karnataka seeks to trigger political debate over social issues, since it may deflect public attention from evaluating the state government’s record over other matters.

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On the other hand, we believe there is a broader background to such moves. Policy initiatives that favor elites and put others at a disadvantage require the latter to provide at least implicit “consent.” This may be problematic if the interests of elites are equated with “national interests” through the deployment of ultra-nationalism. This process of “consent” may be reinforced if divisions emerge among non-elites by stigmatizing and labeling a section of non-elites as the “other.” In India, this process of stigmatization involves the furthering of communalism, which is the political manufacturing of social divides along religious lines.

This manufactured rise in social divides, coupled with other factors such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to an crisis. Rising unemployment, inequality and inflation cannot be overcome with the “toolkit” available to the government. This policy toolkit involves the use of ultra-nationalism and communalism where the pot is always set to boil, causing social tension. The repeated use of such measures has started yielding diminishing results for the government, but it appears to have no alternative policy available.

The way out of this impasse requires a different framework. This needs to involve public , fiscal policy undergirded by progressive taxation, and industry policy backed by mobilization and allocation of resources by the government. Such policies of inclusive development must be part of a process of recentering the constitutional imperatives of secularism, gender and social justice, and democracy.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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How Western Media Misunderstand Chinese Culture

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Many readers would see Turkey’s condemnation as a simple case of an Islamist regime railing against Western suppression of Islam. Indeed, the government’s statement was full of accusations of Islamophobia in Europe. Yet such statements, coming out of Turkey, are not as simple as that.

Those same readers might be surprised to discover that Turkey itself had banned headscarves in state institutions until very recently. This might make a governmental condemnation of a ban in Europe seem nonsensical. The reality helps to give context to the Turkish reaction.

Wear Western Hats

Condemnations of headscarf bans might ordinarily be expected to emanate from regimes such as the Iranian theocracy or the Saudi conservative monarchy. Coming out of the secular republic of Turkey, they might appear more curious, if it wasn’t for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s global image as a religious conservative.

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His government’s sensitivity to headscarf bans is very personal indeed. In 2006, his own and other politicians’ wives were not invited to an official event by the then-Turkish president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, due to their wearing of headscarves. In 2007, there was an attempt by the military — a traditional guardian of Turkey’s ruling secular elite — to deny the presidency to Abdullah Gul of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) because his wife wore a headscarf.

Such attitudes, which might appear highly intolerant in countries such as the United Kingdom, make more sense in places like France where the separation of church and state is a foundation of the republic. When modern Turkey was created in 1920, France became the model for how to build a modern state. A key element in the imitation of the French was the desire of Turkey’s first military rulers to suppress Islam.

The Ottoman Empire, of which Turkey was the successor state, was an Islamic empire. Indeed, it was ruled by a caliph, the Islamic equivalent of the pope in Rome. The caliph was the leader of the Muslim world. Turning Turkey into a modern secular republic was akin to removing the pope from the Vatican and banning the wearing of the Christian cross in Catholic Europe. Needless to say, it has created cultural fault lines in Turkey that persist to this day.

To drive home his cultural revolution in the 1920s and 1930s, modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, instituted a ban on the fez — that most famously Turkish of hats — and the turban. He insisted on men wearing the Western brimmed hat, traditionally rejected since it doesn’t allow the wearer to bow their head to the floor in Muslim prayer whilst wearing it.

The veil and headscarf were also discouraged, though the state’s ability to enforce changes in female clothing was slower to be realized than with men’s. The persistence of female cultural clothing as opposed to male could be the subject of an entire essay of its own.

Alongside many other measures, such as the banning of the Sufi Muslim brotherhoods, the closure of mosques, a ban on the call to prayer in Arabic and the removal of the Arabic script, the Turkish authorities attempted to forcibly Westernize Turks.

The Illiberal 1980s

Yet it was not until the military coup d’état of 1980 that Turkey finally outlawed the headscarf officially. It was then that it was banned across all state institutions, including schools, universities, the judiciary, the police and the military. In effect, this meant that girls from religious backgrounds had to choose either to remove their headscarves or not get an education. Only with the rise of the AKP to power in the 2000s did official attitudes begin to shift.

In 2010, Turkish universities finally admitted women who wore headscarves. This was followed a few years later by state bureaucratic institutions, except the judiciary, military and police. In 2016, policewomen were allowed to wear headscarves beneath their caps, and finally in 2017, the military was the last institution to lift the ban.

This is the backdrop against which the Turkish government condemns a headscarf ban — in certain circumstances — decreed by the ECJ. It is a backdrop in which the religiously conservative in Turkey read a narrative of European coercion running back to the founding of the modern state and even earlier.

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The ideas that inspired the military officers who won the Turkish War of Independence — the war with Allied powers that followed the conclusion of the First World War — were imported from Western Europe. Having carved out an almost entirely religiously homogenous Muslim state, they set out to utterly secularize it.

The banning of the headscarf is therefore seen by religiously conservative Turks as an idea imported from Europe and, in some sense, an idea dictated to Muslims by secularized Christian nations. Given the last century of experience in Turkey, it is clear how this view is generated.

Ultimately, the question is one of whether people who like the use of headscarves should tolerate those who don’t wear them, and whether those who dislike the use of headscarves should tolerate those who do wear them. Examples of intolerance abound on either side. A lack of understanding will bring no peace to Turkey or to countries across Europe and the world.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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It’s 2017 and Muslim women across the globe are breaking stereotypes. No matter where they are located or what industry they are involved in — sport, fashion or politics — they are getting themselves known and setting a powerful example for Muslim women everywhere.

If you are not aware of them already, now is the time to be inspired by these successful Muslim ladies.

Saufeeya Goodson

Based in Dubai, is known internationally, appearing in many fashion magazines. She is also the co-owner of — previously known as @hijabfashion — which is a popular Instagram fashion page with over 2.9 million followers. If you haven’t already spotted her in or , then she is one to check out. Her outfits are bold and daring, ranging somewhere between contemporary and . Usually spotted wearing her signature sunglasses, she is making fashionable and very much on-trend.

Linda Sarsour

Linda is a Palestinian-American civil rights activist, mostly known for her part in helping to organize the , a protest movement led by women that brought . They all had one common goal and that was to make it very clear that women’s rights are just as important as human ones.

Ruma

Known for her fashion blogs, recently found herself on the Twitter page of H&M, applauded for her very special panache and stylishness. Named Mahmuda but called Ruma by everyone, her dream is to be so much more than just a regular fashionista. Looking to inspire her followers with stories and lessons learned from her life, she uses social media and the art of fashion to stimulate and motivate. Seeing haute hijab as the essence of traditional modesty, she sees what she does as being much more akin to a women’s movement rather than simply a fashion statement.

Halima Aden

Halima is a model known for being the first Somali-American Muslim to take part in a Minnesota USA pageant wearing a hijab and go on to reach the semifinals. To top this, she hit the runway when she modeled for Kanye West at his Yeezy season 5 fashion show. Disposing of all Muslim stereotypes, she also appeared on the , wearing the Nike hijab with a caption saying, “This is American Beauty.”

Shahd Batal

As a YouTuber and vlogger, Shahd’s focus is mainly on providing viewers with her own original tips to attain healthy skin and apply makeup. Sudanese by birth but now living in Minneapolis, her videos have been hitting the internet since 2014 and were recently rehashed and showcased via her new sleek channel. Her focus is on honesty and pure simplicity. Here you will find on how to wear a classic head-wrap and pen the perfect eyebrows, all held together with her very personal stories with regard to the hijab.

Carolyn Walker-Diallo

Carolyn hit the headlines when she was back in 2015, becoming the first New York City Civil Court judge to do so. She bravely stood up to the backlash that resulted and, because of this, she has become an inspirational figure for many Muslim women around the world.

Behnaz Shafiei

Something you may not expect is a Muslim woman road racer/motocross rider, but is exactly that. Born in Iran, she is the sole Iranian female to be involved in road racing professionally. In a country where women are ridiculed for their driving skills, Behnaz loves the fact that many men are scared to do the things she can on her motorbike.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Sharmeen has been named by magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. A Muslim filmmaker, journalist and activist born in Pakistan, much of her work focuses on highlighting the inequalities that many women face. So far she has received two Academy Awards, six Emmys and a Lux Style Award. Even the Pakistani government has honored her, presenting her with the second highest civilian honor of the country, the .

As you can see, there is no shortage of Muslim women to inspire, encourage and motivate. By breaking the mold and showing themselves to be powerful, influential and compelling, they are setting a great example for Muslim women of today.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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