Dear reader,
Initially, Iranians danced in the streets after the monarchy ended in 1979 and the Shah was expelled from the Peacock Throne.
Soon nobody was dancing anymore.
Especially not the women.
Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers had usurped all power and quickly transformed the country into a gloomy dictatorship.
Since then, the Koran has dictated everyday life and laws in the »Islamic Republic«.
The ultra-conservative rulers have enslaved the country, disenfranchised and humiliated women for decades, forcing them to wear a hijab or chador.
They pursue opposition Iranians with the regime-loyal Revolutionary Guards and the Basij stick-out-of-the-sack militia – and have them beaten and shot at any time as soon as protests stir.
Jina Mahsa Amini, 22, died three weeks ago after the mullahs' regime's religious police arrested her for not covering her hair as strictly as required by recently tightened veil regulations.
Since then, courageous women have been dancing on the streets again: they burn their headscarves and cut their hair.
No longer wanting to be second class citizens, they are calling for the overthrow of their oppressors as hundreds of thousands march in solidarity around the world.
"The veil has become a symbol for this repressive regime," says Nina Ansary.
In an interview with history colleague Jasmin Lörchner, the Iranian-American historian and author explains the long tradition behind the obligation to cover up in former Persia and today's Iran - and how women's rights activists resisted it as early as the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
At the time, the movement was fighting for education and career opportunities, and today it's about much more than the headscarf, says Ansary: »People don't put themselves in danger just to change the laws that cover the veil.
They are fighting for their country, for freedom, for their basic rights and their human dignity.« They are »more determined than ever«.
Read the interview here.
Enlarge image
The young empress: Elisabeth married Emperor Franz Joseph when she was just 16 years old
Photo:
Heinz Gebhardt / IMAGO
It was a cinema event in the 1950s: you are probably familiar with the »Sissi« historical kitsch with the young Romy Schneider and Karl-Heinz Böhm, a film trilogy with gigantic viewer numbers, which has been shown on television again and again since then.
In a hundred years more than 1000 books, 23 films and now five new series: The life of Empress Elisabeth is and remains a crowd puller, a year before the 125th anniversary of her death a new wave is surging.
The Viennese art historian Katrin Unterreiner is also fascinated by »Sisi« as a historical figure, »with all her ambivalence and so many facets«.
Because Elisabeth of Austria led a tragic life, she was "not popular at all and by no means celebrated," says Unterreiner in an interview (please also look at the photo series, it's worth it).
She withdrew completely from the public, as well as from her role, her function and task: "She wasn't interested in being or playing the empress" - until Elisabeth died in an assassination attempt.
In 1898, a laborer who hated the monarchy stabbed her to death with a file.
He had that in common with the shy monarch.
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We can be reached by e-mail at spiegelgeschichte@spiegel.de and look forward to receiving praise and criticism, also for the current issues: the HISTORY issue »Slavery: How people became a commodity – and Germany benefited« and the SPIEGEL edition on the topic » Prussia and the Hohenzollerns«.
Your SPIEGEL HISTORY team