I grew up as a woman in Iran after the Islamic revolution. Wearing a mask in a pandemic is not a form of tyrannical oppression.
- The benefits of wearing a mask during the pandemic are numerous, but some Americans have refused, arguing that doing so amounts to tyranny.
- Growing up in the shadow of the Islamic revolution in Iran, I know firsthand what tyranny looks like, and watching people complain about masks feels surreal.
- As a US citizen, I vow to protect the precious freedom of expression that was denied to me in Iran, but I refuse to defend the right to infect others during a deadly pandemic.
- There are plenty of injustices worth fighting against, but shopping at Trader Joe's with a mask isn't one of them.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
I grew up in Iran in the aftermath of Islamic revolution, when freedom of thought and expression were abruptly restricted, especially for women. In a matter of weeks, half the population became second-class citizens.
The new government forced us to cover our hair. We had to sit at the back of the bus, and our rights were cut in half: Female heirs would inherit half the amount of male heirs, and two female witnesses became equal to one male witness. Many protested the drastic changes and were brutally assaulted. My own resistance began when I was seven, founded on a fierce belief in equal rights. The new laws had me in hijab, while boys could dress as they pleased. I defied this law by pretending to be a boy.
Now, as an adult, I don't take kindly to being told what to wear. But I live in the US, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed over 100,000 lives. Studies show that wearing a mask can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the CDC recommends wearing them in public places where other methods of physical distancing are difficult to manage. Many places of business now require customers to wear face masks.
These requirements have struck a nerve with some people, as if they are a form of authoritarian oppression. Along with demonstrations against shut-down orders, certain pockets of the country have railed against masks, deeming them an example of government overreach and an attack on civil liberties. Even the country's president has expressed similar sentiments.
But those who equate wearing masks during the current pandemic to tyrannical oppression are, at best, confused. Taking a slightly inconvenient protective measure that can curb the spread of a highly transmissible and deadly disease is not at all equivalent to being oppressed by a brutal regime. This conflation is dangerous: it shows up in violence, some of it fatal, against workers; in harassing and insulting healthcare workers; and in protest signs that liken wearing a mask to the torture enslaved people endured.
As a US citizen, I vow to protect the precious freedom of expression that was denied to me in Iran. But I refuse to defend the right to infect others during a deadly pandemic. As much as I hate clothing restrictions, I choose to wear a mask to protect others.
In Iran, the rationale behind forcing hijab on women was one of supposed protectionism
Our uncovered heads threatened the moral fiber of society and could result in destruction and mayhem. This was, of course, absurd.
After the Islamic revolution in 1979, over 100,000 men and women took to the streets of Tehran on International Women's Day to protest laws curtailing women's rights. The crackdowns soon followed. The new government's Morality Police patrolled neighborhoods looking for offenders who didn't adhere to the new laws.
There were rumors that women who wore lipstick had their lips cut by razors. I overheard my parents whispering about a Morality Police officer taking a whip to a little girl on a park swing. She was too young for hijab, but the randomness of this act struck terror in our hearts. But women didn't stop their resistance. Even many who preferred wearing hijab were angry and fought against the regime.
About one-third of the girls in my sister's senior class were imprisoned for being anti-revolutionary. Some were tortured. When our neighbor, my sister's 17-year-old friend, was executed, it sent shockwaves through the neighborhood. To this day, even faced with all the danger, Iranian women are still resisting the patriarchy and fighting for their rights.
Watching some Americans conflate wearing a mask with what I saw growing up feels surreal
Several years after migrating to America, my gaze stopped flitting about for spies who might be watching me. My ears stopped listening for the sound of the commotion of someone being taken in by authorities. I stopped holding my breath for the next disaster.
My new home was not without problems. But oppression of individual rights in the way I experienced it in my childhood wasn't one of them.
I don't recall anyone complaining about traffic laws, indecent exposure laws, or respecting businesses that have a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" policy. To see people complain that wearing a mask is akin to the sort of oppression I experienced in Iran feels surreal.
Perhaps the deluge of new changes prompted by the pandemic has caused certain individuals to confuse the mask requirement with dealing with tyranny, or living in fear. Before the pandemic, my team and I traveled to Mexico several times a month to sing and dance with asylum seekers. We sometimes arrived at the shelter to find children and adults dealing with measles, mumps, or rubella. But this didn't frighten me or my team.
Our main hesitance to resume the sessions now isn't out of fear, but out of love and respect for a group of vulnerable people who don't have the luxury of physical distancing. Similarly, wearing a mask at the grocery store doesn't mean that one is living in fear. It means that even if you're not compelled by science, you care enough about those around you, many of whom are understandably scared of exposure.
I still find myself watching for signs of the slippery slope of tyranny. Even before the pandemic, we had plenty of injustices to challenge: infringement on the rights of people of color, women and workers; the erosion of freedom of speech; and the disregard of the 4th amendment. These are things worth fighting against. Shopping at Trader Joe's with a mask is not.
Tyranny doesn't appear in the form of a Costco employee asking a customer to leave for not wearing a mask. It shows up in the form of a police officer kneeling on a man's neck as he begs, and helpless, traumatized witnesses watch until life drains from him.
That, not the protective act of wearing a mask, is what we should be protesting.
Ari Honarvar is the founder of Rumi With A View, dedicated to building music and poetry bridges across war-torn and conflict-ridden borders. Her writing on social justice issues has appeared on The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Washington Post, and elsewhere. She is the author of the oracle card set and book, Rumi's Gift.
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