For her project My Stealthy Freedom, Amsterdam-based photographer Marinka Masséus travelled to Iran, where it is mandatory for women to wear the hijab. The series, in which women defiantly throw their veils in the air, was created in a Tehran apartment with the windows covered in tinfoil to conceal the flash. “I applaud the right for any woman to wear the hijab as she chooses,” says Masséus. “But many Iranian women hate compulsory hijab – they see it as a symbol of oppression.” She was struck by the contrast between the oppressive regime and the independent, modern women she met there. “They all told me the same thing: we have two faces, one for the outside world to stay safe and one for inside.”

Masih Alinejad, an activist for My Stealthy Freedom against forced hijab, calls upon all foreign female visitors to Iran to not wear the headscarf in support of the fight for freedom for women in Iran.

