WORCESTER - The image has become symbolic of the protests shaking Iran - a young woman, head uncovered, waves her white headscarf from a pole like a flag of defiance.
Iranians who have settled in Massachusetts say the picture widely shared on social media of the hijab-less woman offers hope for change in the homeland they left behind.
“Yes, absolutely - it’s full of meaning,” said Mahdi Farhani Monfared, who chaired the history department at Azzahra University in Tehran before leaving Iran after suppressed demonstrations in 2009, and now teaches at Worcester State University.
“The young generation of people don’t want to be under these kinds of pressures - the mandatory hijab, or (theocrats) being involved in every single detail of their lives, what you should wear, what you should say,” he said.
Dr. Adel Bozorgzadeh, a transplant surgeon at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was a dissident medical student when he left Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, escaping through the mountains to Turkey, and eventually immigrating to the United States.
“Of course, this is really symbolic, isn’t it?” Dr. Bozorgzadeh said. “A young woman, perhaps in her teenage years, stands on a pedestal (and) takes her white head scarf that the (regime) shoved down the throat of the people. She takes that and puts it on a stake and waves as a way of protest and (symbol of) peace at the same time. It is amazing the extent of participation, especially of women, in these protests.
“The image that usually is reflected of the people of that country in the media is that of people chanting, 'Death to Israel, Death to America!' ” he said. “In reality, this is what expatriates like myself and the whole world know: In a country of 80 million people, there are a couple million people ruling over the rest of the population with brutality and force, by jailing and killing and oppressing people.
“This symbolic picture really is the heart of these people, saying, ‘Look, the true Iran is represented by that woman, who is peaceful, who literally is standing up for her rights, saying we have a different voice.’ It really is amazing. It brings tears to people’s eyes.”
Hudson author Ali Hosseini, who left Iran in 1975 at age 20 and has written novels set in Iran against the backdrop of upheaval following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, said he has been following the news from Iran with great interest.
“Iranian immigrants all over the world, including many of us who live in the New England area, are watching this very closely,” Mr. Hosseini said via email. “Activists outside of the country are calling for peaceful demonstrations; some are calling for a referendum. People are worried about their loved ones.
“Hundreds have been arrested - 95% are under age 25 - and the regime accuses the ‘outside Enemies’ - America, Israel, Saudi Arabia - for starting this and interfering in Iranian society. Of course no one is buying this or anything else that they say. The fragile trust that existed over the years is not there anymore. The Islamic Regime will never be able to rule the way it has in the four decades since the revolution.”
Mr. Hosseini, who has been traveling abroad, continued in his email: “The uprising in Iran has taken most people by surprise. What is interesting is that it started in the city of Mashhad far from Tehran the capital and spread to many of the major cities within a day or two. And from very first day the slogans were secular - no ‘Allah Akbar’ ... but instead calls for end of the regime and Iran’s involvement in Syria and Lebanon with slogans like ‘Leave Syria alone and think of us.’
“The uprising started because of economic hardship - the retirees who are not receiving their pensions, the middle class who have lost their savings by failure of the banks, lack of jobs and opportunities and the sudden rise of prices of eggs, bread and gas - but quickly turned political with calls for the end of the Islamic Regime.”
Mr. Monfared said in a phone interview last week: “It’s natural that if you don’t listen to your people you will have a reaction sooner or later. It’s not a wave that can be silenced or suppressed for a long time. The government needs to have some fundamental changes. They have to have surgery - political, economic surgery. The country is in the process of change. The political system is one of the things that will change, sooner or later.”
Dr. Bozorgzadeh, 58, said: “This is a brutal dictatorship and a repressive regime that has never tolerated any different opinion or the voice of dissent. Now the whole world sees for themselves how they are going to put another popular uprising against them down. It is very well known that this regime throughout its 40 years of existence has brutally suppressed various uprisings along the way.
What started in smaller communities as protests of economic grievances have “spread like a brush fire across the country” and become a pervasive protest against the regime on political, social and cultural grounds, he said. “This is unprecedented,” he said.
The protests “really rose from heart of ordinary people in the street calling out social, political, and economic injustice,” Dr. Bozorgzadeh said. “These people, knowing the brutality of the regime, nonetheless are taking their lives in their hands to go into the streets. What they are doing is admirable."
“People cannot take it anymore,” he said. “Who knows how far it goes?”