While hundreds of women died in Iran amid the anti-hijab protests, the left has been seen hijacking the issue with the intention to make it look unworthy and unsuccessful. Numerous people have been injured, and at least 3,000 people have been detained, according to local news sources. According to CNN, Iranian officials earlier this week admitted they are holding student demonstrators in mental health facilities in order to “reform” them.

There have been certain instances where the women protesting against hijab have been termed insane while many called Hijab a “choice”, the “choice” for what Mahsa Amini was killed by the morality police.

In another instance, in the last week, Boston Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson proposed a resolution that drew a great deal of criticism. It calls for the official City of Boston to declare Mahsa Amini’s birthday, September 23, to be Boston’s official Hijab Day.

On Thursday, October 19, Fernandes Anderson addressed the city council and expressed her concerns about the rise of Islamophobia toward women who wear the hijab in the US.

She said, “For the past few weeks, people of good conscience a month or so from around the world have joined in the protest, the thousands across Iran demanding justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died after three days in custody of Iran’s notorious morality police after being accused of not properly covering her hair.”

In order to show their support for Amini’s family and their desire for freedom and access to a joyful life free from repression by an oppressive state, brave women participated in these protests in the heart of Iran by burning their scarves and cutting their hair in the face of arrest, abuse, and in some cases, even death.

Tania who drapes hijab around her head, went on to discuss Amini and the protests, directing the debate to justice for Amini and the other women who were killed for wearing hijabs incorrectly. She then showed off the numerous ways one can wear a hijab, ostensibly indicating that there is no wrong way to do so.

“As an African woman, I wear a bun over my scarf. It’s easy,” she added, adding that in the meanwhile, “I’ll just wrap it around,” Mahsa Amini replied. It’s only a scarf; it’s not a big issue.

She concluded her remarks by saying, “You see, whether I wear it or I don’t, it’s my choice.” She was defending the resolution she was proposing.

Where Iranian women protest for freedom from hijab and conservative Islamic traditions that suppress them, women like Councillor Anderson try to impose another narrative to dilute the issue making the protests and death of those hundreds of women and children go unworthy and unsuccessful.

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