Elnaaz Norouzi, an Iranian actor, has joined the protest against Iran’s “morality police” by taking her clothes off one by one in an Instagram video.
On Tuesday (11 October), the Sacred Games actress shared a video in which she was seen removing multiple layers of clothing.
“Every woman, anywhere in the world, regardless of where she is from, should have the right to wear whatever she desires and when or wherever she desires to wear it,” she stated in the caption. Norouzi also clarified that her goal is to promote “freedom of choice!” rather than nudity.
However, the post now has been deleted.
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Protests have erupted across Iran in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being apprehended for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Amini, 22, was apprehended by morality police last month for failing to cover her hair with a hijab. She was declared dead a few days later.
Her death came after a series of protests and clashes with police in which over 130 people were killed.
Norouzi has been voicing her support for Iranian women on social media for quite some time. Elnaaz had previously spoken out about her encounter with Tehran’s morality police.
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Elnaaz stated in an Instagram video that it infuriates her that everyone stood up for George Floyd with the Black Lives Matter protest, even if they were not black, but not Mahsa. In the same video, she expressed her admiration for Iranian women and men who risk their lives every day for “human rights and women’s rights,” and asked, “Who needs others?”
In a video posted on her Instagram, Norouzi said-“What happened to Mahsa could have happened to Elnaaz. A few years back, I was in Iran, and it was my last day in Tehran. I was out on the road with my cousin when a woman suddenly came in front of me, and she just asked me ‘what is this?’. I really didn’t know what she was talking about, and she repeated ‘what is this?’ “
In another post, Elnaaz shared a childhood photo of herself wearing a hijab, as do many of the other girls in the photo. She captioned the photograph – “Looking forward to the day where a 6 year old isn’t forced to wear a hijab in school and be beaten up if it’s not worn properly. Looking forward to the day where a woman can decide whether she’d like to cover her hair or not. Looking forward to the day where all.”
She has frequently shared clips from Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show and expressed gratitude to men who have stood up for and supported women in Iran.
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The protests, led by women, have galvanised a broad swath of Iranian society to rise up in one of the most significant political movements the Islamic Republic has seen since its inception in 1979.
