Watch: Videos of women taking off hijab on ‘World Hijab Day' go viral

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Every year, February 1 is marked as World Hijab Day worldwide. It is a day set aside to create awareness of the Muslim woman's dress code. On this day, women from all religious backgrounds are asked to don a headscarf in order to normalize a Muslim woman’s head covering.

Hijab is a veil that Muslim women are obligated to wear to maintain modesty. But while it has been embraced by some women who have taken it to a high-fashion design level, others completely reject it as a symbol of gender oppression and a tool to control Muslim women’s bodies. The piece of cloth remains a highly contested cultural and religious symbol, with attitudes towards it varying widely among Muslim women.

Last year, women in Saqqez town of Iran’s Kurdistan province took off their hijab during the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by the country’s infamous religious police in Tehran. Amini was arrested for not wearing hijab properly and was allegedly brutally beaten up.


Amini’s death sparked similar protests in Tehran and other cities. Iran has a compulsory hijab law that mandates that women must always wear the hijab when in public. Protesters at Amini’s procession demanded that this law should go.


After Amini’s death, in a counter to ‘World Hijab Day’, February 1 has been designated as ‘No Hijab Day’ and celebrated with greater vigor by liberal Muslim women worldwide.

Proponents of ‘No Hijab Day’ claim that it counters Islamist agenda, which marked the return of Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Iran from his French exile, by declaring February 1 as ‘World Hijab Day’. His regime subsequently made it compulsory to exercise purdah in Iran.

Several videos and photographs of Muslim women taking off their Hijab have emerged and gone viral on social media under the hashtag #NoHijabDay.







‘Women get beaten up for not wearing Hijab’


Iranian writer Maryam Namazie posted videos and photos from London of women taking off their hijab.




‘Tool of oppression’




Human right activist Nazanin Boniadi also posted video of woman protesting against Khomeini under hashtag #WomanLifeFreedom