Shame must change sides

“The student Ahou Daryaei rebels in Tehran. Iranian women know exactly what they are fighting against.”

The video went viral: A young woman walks across the campus of a university in Tehran in her underwear and is eventually dragged into a car by men—presumably the morality police.

In a guest article on ZEIT ONLINE, Katajun Amirpur reflects on her thoughts about the issue. She herself studied in Tehran.

“The usual entrance to a university campus in Iran is infinitely humiliating. As a woman, you first have to pass through the enclosure set up in front of the entrance, run by the ‘sisters,’ as this part of the so-called morality police is derisively called by those of us affected. (…) If you’re wearing too much eyeliner, too much mascara, or too much lipstick, they bark at you (…). Or a ‘sister’ harasses you because your headscarf isn’t worn the way she deems proper. All of it comes with that contemptuous look in their eyes, as if you were the lowest of the low: a whore, a slut, worthless.”

Amirpur describes how, in those moments, she felt like she had become what they treated her as. “I felt ashamed. My mind told me: You haven’t done anything to be ashamed of. But the feeling of shame comes nonetheless, no matter what your mind thinks. That’s the worst part: when, as someone being humiliated, you actually start to feel the way the person humiliating you wants you to feel.”

For anyone who has experienced something like this, watching the video of the student takes on a different meaning.

It remains unclear what preceded the incident, with various claims circulating. Amirpur makes no assertions but imagines how years of humiliation could culminate in such rage that a woman, in an act of self-empowerment, risks her life. “I can completely understand the need to break free from this powerlessness by, at least once, exercising power over your own body—through exposure. To resist in exactly this way: If you’re so afraid of the female body, then I will confront you with your greatest fear. At that moment, I have power over you—finally.”

One can imagine what might now await Ahou Daryaei. But: “This student in her underwear has already become a new icon of resistance.”