Collective Action

Several dozen protesters gathered at the National Museum in Beirut Sunday to show solidarity with Iranian women following the death more than two weeks ago of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini after detainment by the country's morality police. Amini had been in custody for wearing clothing the police deemed improper. Lebanese Army soldiers and police were deployed to the scene Sunday afternoon while small verbal scuffles occurred between some protesters and photojournalists, L'Orient Today's journalist on the ground reported. A verbal dispute broke out between a protester and at least one male photojournalist but did not escalate. Earlier, a Muslim cleric arrived at the protest, but he was pushed out by protesters chanting “corruption is in the turbans." Some of the demonstrators told him that he was not welcome in the protest and demanded that he leave while shouting "freedom, freedom!"

One of the protesters explained: "It is not about the hijab as much as it is about women’s right to choose." The Iranian government requires women to wear headscarves in public, a measure put in place following the 1979 revolution which saw the country come under religious clerical rule.  "We are against tyranny and oppression, not against the hijab," protesters in Beirut chanted. "Give women their right to choose, it's time for men to stop telling women what to do, what to wear, who to love." "Jina we are here for you," some demonstrators also chanted, in reference to Mahsa Amini's Kurdish name. Others condemned "patriarchal and authoritarian regimes" and "Arab regimes normalizing relations with Israel."