Women in Iran are burning headscarves and cutting their hair in anti-hijab protests. They follow a long history of rising up for a woman's right to choose.

On January 8, 1936, Reza Shah Pahlavi issued a decree known as "Kashf-e hijab," or "unveiling," which eliminated veils from Iranian working society in a bid to modernize the country.

The Shah was inspired by the Westernization he saw during his visits to countries like Turkey. "I am extremely delighted that women have become aware of their rights and entitlement," he said in a speech after a 1936 visit to Turkey. "Now women are on their way to gain other rights in addition to the great privilege of motherhood."

Under the Shah's rule, women began to engage more in Iranian society, attending university, mingling with men, and donning Western-style clothes.

But the Shah's ban on the hijab stoked the outrage of opponents in the religious establishment, and also alienated many Iranian women. Police were ordered to physically remove veils off women, and sometimes beat them for wearing them.

During the 1970s revolution, the hijab became a sign of opposition to the monarchy. Many middle-class women started wearing the veil voluntarily as a form of protest to keep the hijab.

The Shah was overthrown and exiled on September 16, 1941, ending the ban on the hijab.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution swiftly undid the monarchy's nascent efforts to advance women's rights in Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini imposed laws that enshrined gender discrimination: Beaches and sports were sex-segregated, married women were barred from attending regular schools, and women could not become judges. All girls above a certain age had to wear head coverings.

Although many women had worn the veil during the revolution, they had not expected mandatory veiling and a large number did not support it.

On International Women's Day on March 8, 1979, thousands gathered to demonstrate for women's rights in the Islamic Republic. "In the dawn of freedom, there is an absence of freedom," their slogan went.

The Iranian youth — including men — rose up to protest against the demolition of women's rights.

In the decades that followed, Tehran police began a fierce crackdown on "bad hijab." The morality police was established in 2005 to arrest people who violate the Islamic dress code.

"Anyone in public places and roads who openly commits a harām (sinful) act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act, shall be sentenced to two months imprisonment or up to 74 lashes," the Islamic Penal Code states. "Women who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced ten days to two months' imprisonment or a fine of five hundred to fifty thousand rials."

In 2017, the nonprofit organization My Stealthy Freedom started the White Wednesday movement, a campaign that invites men and women to wear white veils, scarves, or bracelets to show their opposition to the mandatory veiling code.

"This campaign is addressed to women who willingly wear the veil, but who remain opposed to the idea of imposing it on others. Many veiled women in Iran also find the compulsory imposition of the veil to be an insult. By taking videos of themselves wearing white, these women can also show their disagreement with compulsion," Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist and activist who launched the movement, said.

In December 2017, Vida Movahed stood on top of a platform on Tehran's Enghelab Street without her veil and raised her white scarf to protest forced veiling. Police arrested her on the spot. Pictures and video of Movahed, known as "the Girl of Enghelab Street," went viral, sparking a wave of similar acts of protest across the globe.

In the months that followed, Iranian authorities arrested more than 35 women on charges such as "a sinful act" and "inciting corruption and prostitution." Some were reportedly tortured and beaten while in custody.

The September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini has stoked renewed global outrage against compulsory veiling.