Boston Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson has come under fire for proposing a resolution to turn Iranian Mahsa Amini’s birthday into the city’s official Hijab Day.
Fernandes Anderson, a Democrat, on Thursday gave a speech in front of the city council absurdly advocating to honor Amini, who died by the Iranian regime for not properly wearing the Muslim head covering, by honoring the very item that got her killed in the first place.
“For the past few weeks, people of good conscience a month or so from around the world have joined in the protest, the thousands across Iran demanding justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died after three days in custody of Iran’s notorious morality police after being accused of not properly covering her hair,” she said, lamenting the rise of Islamophobia.
“These protests in the heart of Iran have featured brave women burning their scarves and cutting their hair in the face of arrest, abuse, and in some cases, even death to show their solidarity with Amini’s family and their will for freedoms and access to a joyful life absence of suppression from an oppressive state.”
She then launched into a confused diatribe about how women could wear hijabs and other headscarves in any fashion they wish.
People holding banners continue to protest after the death of Mahsa Amini , who died while in police custody after being arrested for not wearing her hijab in-line with government mandates, in Iran on October 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“I, an African woman, wear my scarf and put it in a bun. It’s simple,” she said. “Mahsa Amini said, ‘I’ll just wrap it around. It’s not a big deal, it’s just a scarf.’
“You see, whether I wear it or I don’t, it’s my choice,” she said.
Amini’s death prompted sweeping protests against the Ayatollah regime across Iran and the world.
Social media was ablaze with condemnation over Fernandes Anderson’s Hijab Day proposal.
“Such a declaration is unfathomably callous. The hijab has been a tool used by the Iranian regime to subjugate and control women, stripping them of their most fundamental rights,” one user wrote in an email to Fernandes Anderson.
A protester wears a fake-bloody anonymous mask and holds a picture of Mahsa Amini in Parliament Square on October 22, 2022 in London, England. (Martin Pope/Getty Images)
“By labeling Mahsa’s birthday as Boston “hijab” day, you are using the very tool used to not only control, but but also murder women in order to —perhaps inadvertently— deflect the subject away from the crux of this movement and back towards religion. Please don’t make such a reprehensible mistake.”
Another wrote: “Holy s**t, what next, do we honor the f**king taliban on 9/11?”
One Twitter user wrote: “I can’t believe you have the audacity to use Mahsa Amini’s name to promote your agenda. How dare you! She was murdered because she didn’t have a proper hijab.
“Hijab is not an expression of free choice. So, respectfully, consider your own birthday as Boston Hijab Day.”
Pro-Israel activist Emily Schrader wrote: “This is a brazen slap on the face of every single Iranian woman and every single woman who fled from an Islamic country because of harassment and gender discrimination because of hijab. As an American, I feel ashamed and sorry.”
“Boston city councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson introduced to recognize Mahsa Amini’s birthday as the ‘day of women’s right to self-expression, Boston’s Hijab Day,'” journalist and producer with CBC News Nahayat Tizhoosh said in response to Schrader’s tweet. “Amini died as a result of not following the Islamic Republic of Iran’s hijab laws.
“Thousands of Iranian women have been burning their hijabs, cutting their hair and protesting against compulsory veiling,” she continued. “Which part of this resolution has anything to do with Mahsa Amini?”