Free Majid Tavakoli

About

Free Majid Tavakoli (also known as “Be a Man”) is an online protest campaign that consisted of Iranian men taking profile pictures of themselves wearing the hijab, a head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women, and sharing them online. The movement first became popular on the Iranian web and Facebook following the arrest of a student activist Majid Tavakoli during the civil unrest in 2009.

Origin

On June 12th, 2009, the Iranian presidential election stirred civil protests across the country following the reelection of incumbent Mahjoud Ahmadinejad and approval of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei. After the globally contested election, a number of Twitter accounts changed their icons to green as a display of solidarity with the Iranian protesters, which became known as The Green Movement.

Arrest

On December 7th, 2009, Iranian student activist Majid Tavakoli was arrested after giving a speech at the Student Day protest held in Tehran. On that day, state media agencies reported that he was arrested by the security forces as he sought to flee the campus site “disguised as a woman,” showing an image of him dressed in headscarf and robes, looking ashamed:

Spread

Global Voices^[4] reported that that when Tavakoli was arrested, Iranian state news media claimed he was dressed as a woman. HRA-Iran.org also claimed that the images of Majid dressed as a woman are false, implying that this detail was invented to shame him. Radio Free Europe also covered the latest form of grassroots protest in an article titled “Men In Hijabs: Iranian Green Movement’s New Tactic.”

On the web, Iran’s human rights activists and bloggers^[2] also supported the theory that the photographs were staged under duress by the police authorities in an attempt to humiliate the well-known student activist, citing several witnesses who saw Tavakoli at the protests.

To express solidarity for the imprisoned activist, hundreds of Iranian men started updating their Facebook profiles with hijabs around their faces. The official “Free Majid Tavakoli” Facebook event^[3] was created to further spread the photo campaign.

Notable Examples

Photoshopped Images

Meanwhile, other detractors of the Iranian government photoshopped the faces of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad into Majid’s mugshot image.

Videos

External References

^[1] Fars News – Mousavi Riot Leader Dressed in Veil

^[2] Tumblr – Gender Bending for Dissent

^[3] Facebook Event – Free Majid Tavakoli

^[4] Global Voices Online – Global Voices

^[5] Radio Free Europe – Iran’s young Green Movement’s new protest tactic

^[6] Iranian.com – Gallery: We are Majid, Too

^[7]CNN iReport – Men in Hijab

^[8] Wikipedia – Time line of Election Protests in Iran