Mamdani described the hijab as a powerful symbol of devotion and celebration of Muslim heritage.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash for her celebratory post on World Hijab Day, February 1, as her office described the hijab, the mandatory head covering for women in Islam, as a powerful symbol of devotion and celebration of Muslim heritage. People on social media immediately reacted to the post and pointed to countries like Iran where women face the death penalty for disobeying the mandatory hijab rule.
Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York, during an interview at City Hall, New York, USA. (Bloomberg)Also Read: ‘India-US deal begins a new phase, will be completed soon’, says Jaishankar
“February 1st is #WorldHijabDay! Today, we celebrate the faith, identity, and pride of Muslim women and girls around the word who choose to wear the hijab, a powerful symbol of devotion and celebration of Muslim heritage,” Mamdani’s Office of Migrant Affairs posted on X.
‘Standing with our fishermen’Several analysts, activists and commentators called out Mamdani in social media posts because they said the hijab was used as a symbol of oppression against women and denied them the right to choose.
Among the prominent voices criticizing Mamdani was Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad because he said the post appeared as if Mamdani was ‘standing with our prisons’.
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“Frankly, I feel oppressed in my own beautiful city of New York, while you are celebrating “World Hijab Day” while in my wounded country, Iran, women are being jailed, shot and killed for rejecting the hijab and the Islamic ideology behind it,” she said, adding that there was no word of sympathy or solidarity for Iranian women.
“Not even an empty condemnation of the genocide going on in Iran right now. Your silence, paired with celebration, is shameful. You are not standing with women. You are standing with our prisons,” she wrote.
Another social media user claiming to be from Iran wrote how she had to cover her head from the age of 7 as she pointed out that women in Iran are still being killed for their choice not to wear the hijab. “It absolutely pisses me off coming from a country where I have faced the most oppression under Islamic rules. I had to cover my hair at the age of 7 when I started 1st grade. And women in my country are still being killed for showing their hair,” username @chloekhani wrote on X.
“Celebrating hijab when women are beaten, jailed and killed for refusing is moral rot. It’s not empowerment, it’s misogyny dressed up as progress. It’s not culture. It’s oppression. You’re not being inclusive, you’re excusing violence against women,” wrote another woman, @Gulazen.
I remembered Mahsa AminiMany of the posts calling on Mamdani for her celebratory posts on World Hijab Day also mentioned Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was allegedly killed by Iran’s morality police in 2022 for violating hijab rules and not wearing it according to standards set by the government.
Her death triggered a series of protests chanting “Women, Life, Freedom”. Women burn their headscarves in public as a sign of protest against the clerical government’s mandatory hijab rules. Women also publicly cut their hair as a sign of anger against the government. The protests lasted for months and more than 500 people were killed.
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