All posts filed under: Iran’s women

Left: An Iranian dancer practises pole-dancing in a private underground venue. Right: Another Iranian woman performs aerial dance in a women-only gym. In a country where women are banned from riding motorbikes, singing or dancing in public and appearing in public without a hijab, both aerial and pole dance are acts of defiance and, for many, forms of resistance.

‘It’s feminist and it’s badass’: the Iranian women taking up pole dancing and aerial dance

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Hanging from a rope, a harness or a hoop, Iranian women are flocking to gyms to perform aerial dance and sharing videos of their routines on social media. Others are quietly practising another form of self-expression – pole-dancing – in underground venues hidden from Iran’s security forces. In a theocracy where women are banned from riding motorbikes, singing in public or appearing outside without a hijab, aerial dance and pole dancing are revolutionary acts. Nearly three years after the death of Mahsa Amini kicked off the “Woman Life Freedom” protests, women’s gyms across Iran are offering a new sport: aerial dancing, or “aerial” for short. The demand is so high that, as one coach puts it, “you can’t find a gym without an aerial class”. Aerial dance is a form of acrobatic performance that has gained popularity around the world since the 1970s. It involves dancers executing athletic and artistic movements while suspended in the air, hanging from an apparatus such as a rope, a hoop, or a horizontal bar. In order to avoid repression by Iran’s Islamic regime, promoters of aerial dance …

Iranian female singers face arrests and police summons

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In Iran, at least seven women have recently been arrested or summoned for questioning by police. The Iranian regime does not allow women to sing in public. However, more and more Iranian women are defying the ban, particularly since the “Woman Life Freedom” movement began. In recent weeks, they have been the target of a crackdown. This report aired and was published first here at France 24.

“It will be our execution order”: US deportations leave asylum seekers in limbo

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An Iranian woman who was among 299 migrants deported by the United States to Panama has appealed to President Donald Trump for a reprieve so she can avoid being sent back to Iran. As a Christian convert, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, 27, could face execution or life in prison under Iran’s Sharia law if she is forced to return. UPDATE: On Thursday night, all the asylum seekers, including Artemis, were transferred to a camp in the jungle of Darién, near the Panama-Colombia border. Since then, we have lost contact with her. Speaking to me from the hotel in Panama City where the migrants are being held, Artemis Ghasemzadeh said: “Our first request is a reprieve from President Trump – just for our cases to be reviewed.” Ghasemzadeh said US officials had confiscated many of the deportees’ phones and that she was the only one talking to the media: “Everyone, really everyone, has asked me to say please do not deport us to our country of origin.” The Iranians were among the first group of 119 people flown to Panama on a US Army …

‘Schools are responsible’: Iran’s student suicides highlight growing tensions over its hijab laws

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The enforcement of hijab rules in Iran is once again making tragic headlines. Over the past two weeks, two teenage girls took their own lives after reportedly facing intense pressure in their schools. Sixteen-year-old Arezou Khavari jumped from a building, and 17-year-old Ainaz Karimi hanged herself. Both were students at public schools in impoverished regions of the country. According to Iranian teachers interviewed by me, the country’s education system is structured to exert relentless pressure on students – particularly young girls – to conform to the strict dictates of Islamic Sharia law. While news of student suicides occasionally surfaces in Iranian media for various reasons, this is the first reported instance of two teenage girls taking their lives specifically due to pressure over the hijab. The incidents have sparked fresh outrage across Iranian society. On October 27, Ainaz Karimi, 17, took her own life in a village near Kazerun, in southwestern Iran. She had reportedly been insulted, humiliated in front of her classmates, and threatened with expulsion for wearing nail polish and dyeing her hair. As punishment, she was banned from attending classes …

Shooting of former boxing champion highlights brutality of Iran’s ‘morality police’

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It all started as a citation for an improperly worn headscarf, but the incident escalated when former Iranian boxing champion Reza Moradkhani was shot four times by Iran’s “morality police” on April 28, after they questioned his wife. The incident, which left him severely injured, adds to the long list of abuses by the morality police, known for their brutal enforcement of a strict Islamic dress code. Following the altercation with the morality police, known in Iran as the Gasht-e Ershad, Reza Moradkhani, a former member of the Iranian national boxing team and boxing champion in Asia, underwent 12 hours of surgery for his injuries and is now partially paralysed. Moradkhani and his wife, Maria Arefi, also a boxer, submitted a lawsuit against the morality police officer after the shooting, saying that they were advised: “not to go public with the story”. But in June, the court dismissed their case and the couple went to the media. READ MORE: Inside Iran’s “morality police” – women use their smartphones to fight back Suddenly the officer took out …

The real scam behind Iran’s underground female MMA fights

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On May 27, a video of what appears to be a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fight between two women began to make the rounds on Iranian social media. The match, which took place in the suburbs of Tehran, caught the attention of many. It was the first time that an underground MMA fight – forbidden for women in the Islamic Republic – was caught on tape. But according to our Observer, this video actually shows a widespread scam taking advantage of female MMA hopefuls. Just like underground female bodybuilding competitions or ballet dancing, these female MMA tournaments are kept under wraps but well known among sportsmen and journalists in Iran. Now, for the first time, a video of this phenomenon was released. The video, which according to our Observer was filmed in Shahriar, a suburb of Iran’s capital Tehran, shows two women fighting MMA-style in a boxing ring located in what seems to be a private villa. We hear two other women coaching the fighters as well as a man who advises the referee …

Some Iranian children are literally climbing mountains to access online school

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Some Iranian children are finding virtual school harder than others. Photos have recently emerged on social media of children in rural areas who literally have to climb a mountain every day to find an internet connection strong enough so that they can attend their online classes. People have been especially shocked by the image of a child who fell and was injured on his dangerous hike to access the internet. We spoke to one teacher who feels utterly helpless in the face of the situation. Iran has one of the highest Covid-19 rates in the Middle East, with more than 43,000 officially recorded deaths. However, even officials at the Ministry of Health admit that the actual number of dead is likely three or four times that number. Most schools across Iran have been closed, except for a few schools in rural areas. The Iranian government is pushing for all students to stay home and attend online classes using an application called Shad, which was developed by the Ministry of Education. However, to participate in distance …