Iran’s #HairForFreedom Campaign Goes Global

October 12, 2022

Iran’s protests – launched over personal freedoms for women – have inspired a campaign by women across the globe who are cutting their hair and posting videos using the #HairForFreedom hashtag on Instagram. The protests erupted after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, was detained for showing too much hair under her Islamic headscarf. A video captured her collapse at a reeducation center; she went into a coma and died three days later. In the early protests, Iranian women took videos ripping off their hijabs and cutting their hair as acts of defiance.

A group of French activists then launched the Instagram account soutienfemmesiran or “Support Iranian Women.” Iranian women “expect support from the international community,” said French lawyer Richard Sedillot, who initiated the Instagram campaign. “This is a beautiful way to show that support.” Oscar-winning actresses, including Juliet Binoche and Marion Cotillard, posted videos cutting off their locks. Belgian foreign minister Hadja Lahbie cut off her hair on the floor of parliament. Abir al Sahlani, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, cut off her hair during a parliamentary debate in Strasbourg, France.

At one of her performances, French singer and comedian Christel Chollet clipped her blonde locks then passed the scissors around the audience. In Rome, visitors to the National Centre for Contemporary Art and Architecture in Rome, left tresses from their hair in a box at reception to be delivered to the Iranian Embassy in Rome. “They need to know that they are not alone, Giovanna Melandri, president of the MAXXI art museum, told Euronews. “They need to know that what they are asking, which are basic human rights, is something we want to fight alongside them.” The following are pictures, tweets and videos of women in Iran and around the world joining the campaign.

 

 

In Iran

 

 

 

 

 

Internationally

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art

Artists from around the world captured the movement in murals, cartoons and drawings.