イラン抗議デモは「ベルリンの壁」に匹敵　米在住女性活動家

【ニューヨークＡＦＰ＝時事】イスラム教徒の女性が髪を隠すスカーフ「ヒジャブ」は、イラン政府にとって抑圧の道具になるかもしれないがアキレス腱（けん）にもなり、「ベルリンの壁」崩壊のような事態につながるのを政府は阻止しようと努めている──米ニューヨークを拠点に活動するイラン人ジャーナリストで人権活動家のマシー・アリネジャド氏（４５）はＡＦＰにこう語った。（写真はＡＦＰの取材に応じるイラン系米国人ジャーナリストで人権活動家のマシー・アリネジャド氏。米ニューヨークで）
　２００９年にイランを離れたアリネジャド氏が知られるようになったのは２０１４年。イラン人女性にヒジャブ着用義務への抗議を呼び掛ける運動「ｍｙｓｔｅａｌｔｈｙｆｒｅｅｄｏｍ．ｏｒｇ」をソーシャルメディアで立ち上げてからだ。
　イランでは先月ヒジャブの着用をめぐり「道徳警察」に逮捕されたマフサ・アミニさん（２２）が拘束下で死亡。この出来事に抗議するデモが全土で続いている。ツイッターで５０万人、インスタグラムで８００万人のフォロワーを持つアリネジャド氏は、亡命先の米国で毎日、抗議に連帯する投稿をしている。
　「私から見て、ヒジャブ着用の強制はベルリンの壁のようなものです。この壁を壊せば、（イラン・）イスラム共和国は存在しなくなる」とアリネジャド氏はＡＦＰに語った。「ヒジャブの強制は（イラン・）イスラム共和国にとってアキレス腱。だからこそ政権はこの革命を本当に恐れています」
　ヒジャブは「私たちを抑圧し（中略）女性を支配するための道具」であり、「女性を通じて社会全体を支配するためのものです」。
　イラン人女性が「服装を指図する人側にノーと言う」ことができるようになれば、独裁者にノーと言う力を持つようになるとアリネジャド氏は主張する。
　また、政府のイデオロギーを示すための政治的プラットフォームとして女性の体が使われていることに、若者は抗議しているとも指摘した。

■「むちで打たれ、刑務所に入れられ、殺される」
　アリネジャド氏は、フランスで大臣を務めたセゴレーヌ・ロワイヤル氏や、欧州連合（ＥＵ）の外交安全保障上級代表（ＥＵ外相）だったイタリアのフェデリカ・モゲリーニ氏ら欧米の女性政治家が、イランを訪れた際にヒジャブを着用したことを痛烈に批判している。
　「ヒジャブは、世界中のすべての女性が自分の着たいものを選べるようになって初めて選択肢となり得るのです」
　「イランでは７歳の時から、この髪を隠さなければ学校へ行けません。むちで打たれ、刑務所に入れられ、殺されるのです」と、ヒジャブの強制についてアリネジャド氏は、全てのイラン人女性にとっての問題だと語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/17-14:45）

Iran may use the Islamic veil as a tool of oppression, but the hijab is also the weakest pillar of an embattled regime trying to forestall its own Berlin Wall moment, an Iranian-American activist based in New York tells AFP.
Masih Alinejad, 45, who fled Iran in 2009, became known in 2014 after she launched a social media campaign called mystealthyfreedom.org that encourages Iranian women to protest against the obligation to wear the hijab in their country.
In her opinion, Iranian women rejecting the mandatory hijab will have a similar effect as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.
The journalist and activist now has 500,000 followers on Twitter and eight million followers on Instagram, where she posts dozens of photos or videos every day of Iranian women removing their hijab or images of the violent repression in her homeland.
She has become a voice in exile for the protests that have rocked Iran since their initial spark: the death on September 16 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of morality police in Tehran.
Alinejad's public standing increased markedly in mid-2021, when US prosecutors indicted four Iranian intelligence agents for plotting in 2018 to kidnap her and whisk her back to Iran, where one of her brothers was also imprisoned.
Iran denied any involvement in the scheme.
- 'The weakest pillar' -
To me, the compulsory hijab is like the Berlin Wall. If we tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic won't exist, Alinejad told AFP, a flower peeking out from her curly and voluminous hair.
The comparison with the toppling of the Berlin Wall is dear to her and clearly needles Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in a speech this week said US political elements making the analogy do not feel sorry for the death of a young girl, but instead have broader political aims.
That actually shows you that compulsory hijab is the weakest pillar of the Islamic Republic. That is why the regime is really scared of this revolution, Alinejad said.
She argued that if Iranian women succeed in saying no to those who are telling them what to wear, these women will be more powerful to say no to (a) dictator.
The crackdown on the demonstrations caused the death of dozens of people, human rights organizations say.
The hijab is a tool to oppress us... to control women and to control the whole society through women, Alinejad said.
Iran's TikTok generation is protesting the use of women's bodies as a political platform for our government, for the Islamic regime to write its own ideology.
- 'I'm not safe here' -
Far from her country of birth, Alinejad has found employment as host of a program on the Persian service of Voice of America, the US government-funded outlet. She's also faced criticism on social media for taking a hard line opposing any negotiation with Tehran on nuclear issues. Some see her as serving US interests and feeding Islamophobia.
She offers a tart response that brings tears to her eyes: I invite them all to go to Afghanistan, to go to Iran, live under Sharia law.
She routinely pillories Western leaders who comply with the obligation to wear a hijab during their visits to Iran, targeting in particular the former French minister Segolene Royal, or the former representative of the European Union, the Italian Federica Mogherini.
The hijab can be a choice only the day that all women around the world can choose what they want to wear, she said.
Alinejad says fear has been a constant presence both inside Iran and abroad. Speaking figuratively for Iranian women as a whole, she said: From the age of seven, if I don't cover this hair, I (wouldn't) be able to go to school. I get lashes. I go to jail. I get killed.
Exiled life in the United States holds its own dangers. I'm not safe here in America, she said, recalling the 2018 kidnapping attempt against her.
More recently, in late July, a man was arrested after loitering around her home in Brooklyn. The FBI found a Kalashnikov in his car. Since then, the activist has had to move.