Dawson students cut off hair in symbolic support of Iran protesters
Posted October 20, 2022 10:12 am.
Last Updated October 20, 2022 6:24 pm.
Some Dawson College students cut locks of their hair Thursday in a public and symbolic gesture of support for protesters in Iran.
Iran remains engulfed by anti-government protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly arrested for violating the country’s strict dress code.
“As a woman, it’s hard to see the people of my nation die for seeking freedom,” said Dawson student and Iranian-Montrealer, Shaneli Yaghoubi.
Some Iranian demonstrators have publicly hacked off locks of their hair in protest, and the gesture has spread. Images of women elsewhere cutting their hair to show solidarity with Iranian women have gone viral.
“In Iran, you have to cover your hair because you’re a woman, because it makes other people uneasy,” said Yaghoubi. “So the cutting hair is kind of like cutting people’s hand off from having that power over you, that you need to cover your hair, that you cannot sing.
“It’s more of a symbolic thing that is showing that we are trying to be free.”
MORE ON IRAN PROTESTS:
- The beginning of the end for the Iranian regime?
- Iranian officials say Tehran prison blaze killed 4 inmates
- Iran’s celebrities face reprisals for supporting protests
- Canada bans thousands of Iranian regime’s senior officers
Students in Montreal are now joining in on the global trend in solidarity.
“Everybody deserves to have a choice to cut their hair, to do whatever they want with their body,” said Dawson student, Zion Fabro. “It shouldn’t be something discussed by the government other than the person who owns the body.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. that’s Martin Luther King,” said student, Tristan Jean-Chavez. “That’s what I have in my heart and that’s why I’m cutting my hair.”
The initiative was brought on by students of Iranian background, doing this for friends and family back home.
“It makes it hard that I’m here and I cannot fight next to them,” said Yaghoubi. “But it also gives me a chance to have this platform and help them out here by spreading the news.”
“The only thing we can do outside to support them is to echo their voices and to make sure they don’t die down,” said Kiana Lalavi, and Iranian-Montrealer and the VP of External Affairs of the Dawson Student Union. “That applies pressure to the Islamic Republic and also pressure on the Canadian government and other governments to take more action to help with this issue?”
A petition was also circulating to show support for protesters, and to denounce violations of human rights.
Emotions ran especially high when Iranian students let go of their locks.
They say they’re sending a message to the Canadian government.
“We’re the youth and we care about freedom,” said Lalavi. “We care about we are standing here in solidarity with the Iranian people because we care about freedom, women’s rights, and what goes on beyond our borders too.”
—With files from The Associated Press.
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