Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi supported the Iranian revolution only to have it end her career as a judge. It was a pivotal moment in Iran’s turbulent transition and one she remembers well. Towards the end of that first year, the Khomeinist revolutionaries went after two objectives at once as they consolidated their power: the imposition of mandatory hejab for women, and the sharp curtailment of their rights to participate in society as equal citizens.
One day Ebadi arrived at the Ministry of Justice to congratulate the revolutionary officials who had taken power. But instead of thanking her for standing with the revolution, the provisional minister asked her to cover her hair, “out of respect for the return of our beloved Imam Khomeini.”
In her account of those days, Ebadi writes, “the head-scarf ‘invitation’ was the first warning that this revolution might eat its sisters.” Within days the same authorities demoted her to secretary of the court she had presided over, saying that women were “constantly distracted,” “disorganized” and “unmotivated.” The aim was to control what women could do, the professional heights they could reach, and the state chose a means that women would feel against their skin every single moment they stepped out their front doors: the hejab.
