We didn’t have a revolution to go backwards.” That was the rallying cry which brought tens of thousands of Iranian women together onto the streets of Tehran on March 8, 1979.
Women rally against the hijab in 1979. Soon after taking power, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed that all women had to wear the veil – regardless of religion or nationality.
On 8 March, International Women’s Day, thousands of women from all walks of life turned out to protest against the law.
Iranian women were at the forefront of the revolution. But after the Shah was deposed and Ayatollah Khomeini returned to the country, everything that they’d been fighting for was threatened.
