Hair: symbol of the many struggles of women

Since the death of Masha Amini, a young Kurd arrested by the Iranian morality police for “wearing inappropriate clothes”, protest videos have multiplied on social networks. We discover Iranian women cutting their hair as a sign of solidarity and protest. A far from trivial gesture, which women have already used in the past, whether to fight against racism, inequalities, and injunctions, or to emancipate themselves.

Hair: symbol of rebellion

From the ‘natural hair movement’ to long locks cut or shaved to fight against different forms of injustice, hair has long been considered a symbol of protest. Witness the proliferation of videos showing Iranian women succeeding one after the other to give up their long hair, like the singer Donya Dadrasan, in solidarity with Masha Amini, who died three days after being arrested by the morality police for wearing an ill-fitting veil. “I cut my hair…I hope for a day when the women of my country can laugh, dance, cry, breathe and live freely”wrote the young woman on TikTok.

It is not the first time in history that hair has been erected as a symbol of rebellion, even insubordination, whatever the reasons… It is even a recurring gesture, undertaken to fight against inequalities, injunctions, and, as we have seen, against all forms of discrimination and violence. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ‘garçonne’ phenomenon, characterized by an androgynous silhouette and short hair, was it not already linked to the desire of women to emancipate themselves and to claim gender equality?

Between militancy and hair

In the past, women in Iran have shaved their heads to show their support for different movements, but also to protest against the wearing of the veil. In 2016, the ‘My Stealthy Freedom’ page, created by an Iranian-born journalist living in London, published a photo of a young woman who had chosen to shave her head to avoid having to wear a veil.

“I sold my hair to help these adorable little angels with cancer. When I go out on the street, I’m like, ‘No hair, no morality police!’ There’s no reason for those always telling me to veil my hair to stop me now.”she had then written to accompany a snapshot on which she appeared shaved and unveiled.

Last year, at the Tokyo Olympics, it was the South Korean archer An San who found herself in spite of herself at the center of a new salvo of protest. The Olympic champion received insults and threats on social networks because of her short haircut, which some considered “not feminine enough”. Action, reaction… A user initiated a contrary movement, giving rise to a proliferation of videos showing women cutting their hair live under the hashtag “#women_shortcut_campaign”.

A political and cultural symbol

It is sometimes not necessary to go so far as to cut your hair to set it up as a symbol of a fight against discrimination and inequality. From the 1960s and 1970s, the Afro cut was popularized by many activists, including Angela Davis and Nina Simone, giving it both cultural and political symbolism. It is then a question of erecting the natural hair of black women and men as a symbol of the emancipation and cultural affirmation of African Americans.

A movement that continues today, through different names including the “natural hair movement”, due to the persistence of discrimination and prejudice related to the hair of black women, men and children. Remember that the CROWN Act, a law aimed at prohibiting hair discrimination in the United States, was only adopted by the House of Representatives last March. Without this law, it is still possible today to refuse access to employment, education, even sport, to people because of the texture of their hair, or certain hairstyles such as braids, dreadlocks, or vanilla.

Whether we cut it, show it as it is, or shave it, hair has much more than an aesthetic dimension, allowing for decades to fight against all forms of inequality. And something tells us it’s not over…