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Zohran Mamdani faces backlash for celebratory Hijab Day post: ‘Feel tortured in my beautiful city’
Mamdani described hijab as a powerful symbol denoting devotion and celebrating Muslim heritage.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing intense backlash over his celebratory post on World Hijab Day, February 1, as his office described hijab, head covering mandated for women in Islam, as a powerful symbol denoting devotion and celebrating Muslim heritage. People on social media promptly reacted to this post and pointed towards countries such as Iran where women face execution for defying the mandatory hijab rules.
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“February 1st is #WorldHijabDay! Today, we celebrate the faith, identity, & pride of Muslim women & girls around the word who choose to wear the hijab, a powerful symbol of devotion & celebration of Muslim heritage,” Mamdani's Office of Immigrant Affairs posted on X.
‘Standing with our jailers’
Several analysts, activists and commentators called out Mamdani over the social media post as they said that hijab has been used as a symbol over oppression against women and denies them the right to choose.
Among the prominent voices who criticised Mamdani was Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad as she said that the post appeared as if Mamdani was ‘standing with our jailers’.
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“To be honest, I feel tortured in my own beautiful city of New York, watching you celebrate “World Hijab Day” while women in my wounded country, Iran, are being jailed, shot, and killed for refusing the hijab and the Islamic ideology behind it,” she said and added that there had been no word of sympathy or solidarity from Mamdani for the Iranian women
“Not even an empty condemnation for the massacre which unfolding right now in Iran. Your silence, paired with celebration, is shameful. You are not standing with women. You are standing with our jailers,” she wrote.
Another social media user, claiming to be from Iran, wrote that how she had to cover her head from the age 7 as she pointed out that women in Iran are still getting killed for their choice to not wear a hijab. “This absolutely disgusts me coming from a country where I experienced maximum oppression under Islamic rules. I had to cover my hair at the age of 7 when I started 1st grade. And women of my country are still getting killed for showing their hair,” the woman with username @chloekhani wrote on X.
“Celebrating the hijab while women are beaten, jailed, and killed for refusing it is moral rot. That’s not empowerment it’s misogyny dressed up as progress. That’s not culture. That’s oppression. You’re not being inclusive you’re excusing violence against women,” wrote another woman with username @gulagenim.
Mahsa Amini remembered
Many of the posts that called out Mamdani for his celebratory post on World Hijab Day also made references to Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was allegedly killed in 2022 by Iran's morality police for defying the hijab rules and not wearing it as per the standards set by the government.
Her death set off a series of protests with slogans of “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Women set afire their headscarves in public as a mark of protest against the clerical government's mandatory hijab rules. Women also publicly chopped their hair as a mark of resentment against the government The protests went on for months and over 500 people were killed.
