A queer Iranian anarchist talks about their frustration with how the rest of the so-called “left” has been responding to the protests in Iran after Mahsa Amini’s murder.
I don’t know how hijab fits in a future where the coercive notion of gender will no longer exist, and that’s the future I want. I have trouble believing a gendered expectation of clothing will fit when gender isn’t what it is now. How far from womanhood must a transmasc person feel to stop wearing hijab? How close to womanhood should a transfem person feel to have to wear it? What will happen to hijab when man and woman are no longer reference points in the landscape of gender?
I ask these not as hypotheticals. I ask this because I remember the doubly painful experience of my transmasc brothers having to fucking wear hijab in Iran. I say this because I knew transfem people who wouldn’t wear hijab, and their response to the question of “why aren’t you wearing hijab if you’re a woman” was “I’m trans”. This might sound nonsensical within patriarchal understanding of gender, but it makes perfect sense to me. Because what the fuck do your rules mean for someone who rejects their basis? How does hijab work for people who don’t WANT to assimilate into the coercive notions of femininity or masculinity? Will hijab be hijab if it’s truly a choice?