Iranian women have taken to filming themselves cycling in defiance of Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa banning women from riding bicycles in public places.
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But when asked recently, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said women were not allowed to cycle in public or in the presence of strangers.
Now, Iranian women have been using social media to highlight the subject, adding the hashtag #IranianWomenLoveCycling. Iranian women have published photos of themselves on their bikes, notably on the Facebook page “My Stealthy Freedom”, where women had previously posted photos of themselves without their veils, which are obligatory in Iran.
But the new trend was not to the liking of the high-placed ultraconservatives, some of whom felt that seeing women on bicycles was contrary to Islam and constituted “indecent behaviour”. “We love cycling. It is our absolute right and we are not going to give up”. According to the fatwa, women are forbidden from riding bicycles.
“Biking for women is not a taboo and no-one can tell me it is”.
Ms Alinejad told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “This fatwa has received much ridicule on social media”.
“The world is hearkening to the voices of women who say they refuse to change their lifestyle because a fatwa was issued against cycling”.
“We immediately rented two bicycles to say we’re not giving up cycling once we heard Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa”, said the girl.
“No-one protested against us today because men were biking with us”, she said.
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“Women in Iran want to be active in society but for the clerics that’s the big threat because in their eyes, women should not be seen nor heard, stuck in the kitchen”.
