#Iranianwomenlovecycling: Women refuse to ditch their bikes in protest against fatwa on cycling

Updated

Women in Iran are uploading videos of themselves riding their bikes in defiance of new fatwa that bans female cycling for "contravening women's chastity".

Days ago the supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa — a legal ruling handed down by an Islamic religious leader — prohibiting women from riding a bike in a public place.

"Riding a bicycle often attracts the attention of men and exposes the society to corruption, and thus contravenes women's chastity, and it must be abandoned," Mr Khamenei told state media.

But some women are refusing to surrender to the ruling and are encouraging others to take a stand too.

"Bicycle riding is part of our lives," said a young girl in a video where she and her mother rode around Kish Island on the day of the declaration.

As soon as they heard about the fatwa, the pair said they rented two bicycles "to say we're not giving up".

"It's our absolute right and we're not going to give up."

The day after the announcement another Iranian woman posted a video of her cycling just after she finished a ride accompanied by men.

"No-one protested against us today because men were biking with us," she said.

"Here they say when you have a man as your company, you are protected.

"But when I got a bit farther than the men in the group I heard people saying nasty things about me biking."

In the video the woman said she is not worried or fearful and was in fact hopeful about the future.

"I am sure the prohibition of biking for women will be lifted in coming years," she said.

"On that day I will be proud that I did resist the oppression as I believe those who oppress us are wrong.

"Biking for women is not a taboo and no-one can tell me it is."

'Women are the main agents of change'

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and administrator of the online social movement My Stealthy Freedom, has started a campaign against the ban and is urging more Iranian women to show themselves cycling using #IranianWomenLoveCycling.

"This fatwa has received much ridicule on social media," Ms Alinejad told the ABC.

"It is absolutely shameful to hear such a backward fatwa against women in the 21st century … it is unacceptable in 2016.

"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."

Ms Alinejad said she strongly believed if Iranian women continued to push against this ruling that reform would come as "women are the main agents of change".

"The fight for equality is a historical process and just in the same way that women succeeded in Europe and the US to win their rights, so will women in Iran," she said.

"As the wheels of history — or the bicycle in this case — turn, so will women advance."

Female cycling is a controversial issue in Iran and modesty laws are used against women who ride bikes in public.

In July this year police arrested a group of women for cycling and they were forced to sign pledges that they would not repeat their actions.

Topics: women, social-media, religion-and-beliefs, iran-islamic-republic-of

First posted