“Let me breathe in the scent of your hair for a long time and immerse my face in it, like a thirsty man in the water of a spring.” This is how the poem “A Hemisphere in the Hair” by Charles Baudelaire begins, which makes a fiery ode to the curls of his beloved.
The relationship between eroticism and female hair is ancient and for this reason its prohibition is also ancient. In the Song of Songs of the Old Testament we read: “How beautiful you are, my beloved, your hair is like a herd of goats descending the slopes of Gilead.”
The excerpt is quoted in Halacha, Jewish law, to attest that hair arouses sexual desire. Orthodox Jewish women wear scarves, head coverings or wigs. In the Quran there is the same erotic connotation and prohibition as with hijab. Since the beginning of Christianity, women have also covered their heads, and not just to pray.
The sexual symbolism on female tresses permeates monotheistic religions. The problem is that dogmas become government policy.
In contrast to Catholicism, which was forced to secularize by the separation of church and state, today's Islamic world is largely characterized by theocracies that violate human rights, especially those of women.
The wave of protests in Iran following the assassination of Mahsa Amini shows that Iranian women can no longer endure this moral prison.
Activist Narges Mohammadi, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been imprisoned since 2021 and has been arrested 13 times throughout her life and sentenced to 31 years in prison and 150 lashes. She will be tried again, but she has already stated that she refuses to take part in a farcical court.
Every feminist must speak out against the oppression of Iranian women. However, criticism of Islamic theocracies has become taboo due to the distortion of the concept of Islamophobia. Proof that all the freedoms fought for by women in the West have resulted in ideological dogmas and a disregard for ethics. They are arrogant feminists.