Scenes from Troy: Roman-era mosaic discovered in Syria

A largely intact mosaic was uncovered in Rastan near Homs. Rich in details, it shows scenes of the Trojan War and is about 1,600 years old.

The most recent archeological find in Syria

The mosaic is "not the oldest of its kind, but it is the most complete and rare," Humam Saad, who is in charge of excavations and archaeological studies in Syria at the General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities, said Wednesday. He added that there is "no other like it." Among other things, it shows scenes of the Trojan War.

The mosaic, about 20 meters long and six meters wide (66 x 20 feet), was found under a building in Rastan, a city in the northern Syrian governorate of Homs. Rastan, a rebel stronghold, saw fierce fighting in the Syrian war. In 2018, Homs was recaptured by the Syrian government after years of civil war.

The mosaic also portrays Neptune, the ancient Roman god of the sea, and 40 of his mistresses.

Plans to continue excavations

Part of the mosaic was reportedly discovered under a house several years ago, while opposition members were digging tunnels during the civil war.

The site, which dates back to the 4th century, was donated to the Syrian government after being bought by Syrian and Lebanese businessmen with ties to the Nabu Museum in neighboring Lebanon.

There might be more to discover underneath the neighboring buildings

Archaeologist Saad told news agency AP, "We can't identify the type of the building, whether it's a public bathhouse or something else, because we have not finished excavating yet."

There is speculation that the mosaic may actually be larger still, with trustees from the Nabu Museum voicing hope that they will be able to purchase other buildings in Rastan with an eye to securing further heritage sites.  

Archaeological finds endangered in Syria

During the civil war, many important archaeological sites in Syria were destroyed and looted. The oasis city of Palmyra is the best-known example: The terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) blew up the 2,000-year-old cultural monuments of Palmyra because they saw them as buildings of "infidels."

But some rebels also sought to cash in on such items of cultural value. Syrian archaeologist Saad told the Associated Press that rebels had tried to sell parts of the mosaic illicitly online in recent years.

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that

 dates back to the Roman era

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that dates back to the Roman era, in the central town of Rastan, describing it as the most important archaeological discovery since the conflict began 11 years ago.

The mosaic, which shows ancient Amazon warriors, 120 square meters (around 1,300sq ft), was found in an old building that was under excavation by Syria’s general directorate of antiquities and museums.

The property, which dates back to the 4th century, was purchased by Lebanese and Syrian businessmen from the neighboring country’s Nabu Museum and donated to the Syrian state. Each panel was filled with square-shaped, small, colorful stones about a half-inch on each side.

Dr. Humam Saad, Associate Director of Excavation and Archaeological Research at Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, said the mosaic shows the Ancient Amazon warriors as portrayed in Roman mythology.

A detail of a large mosaic that dates back to the Roman era is seen in the town of Rastan, Syria. OMAR SANADIKI/AP

In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the demigod hero Hercules killed Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, in one of his 12 labors. The mosaic also portrays Neptune, the Ancient Roman god of the sea, and 40 of his mistresses.

“What is in front of us is a discovery that is rare on a global scale,” Saad told The Associated Press, adding that the images are “rich in details,” and includes scenes from the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans.

“We can’t identify the type of the building, whether it’s a public bathhouse or something else, because we have not finished excavating yet,” Saad told the AP.

Sulaf Fawakherji, a famous actress in Syria and a member of the Nabu Museum’s board of trustees said she hopes they could purchase other buildings in Rastan, which she says is filled with heritage sites and artifacts waiting to be discovered.
“There are other buildings, and it’s clear that the mosaic extends far wider,” Fawkherji told the AP.

One side of the mosaic panel discovered in Rastan, Homs (AFP)

“Rastan historically is an important city, and it could possibly be very important heritage city for tourism.”

Over the past ten years of ongoing, violent conflict, Syrian heritage sites have been looted and destroyed. The Islamic State group captured Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site with 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and priceless artifacts, and partially destroyed a Roman theater.

After seizing it from armed opposition forces in 2016, Syria’s cash-strapped government has been slowly rebuilding Aleppo’s centuries-old bazaar. Before the Syrian government reclaimed the city in 2018, Rastan was a significant opposition stronghold and the scene of violent clashes.

Cover Photo: People look at a large mosaic that dates back to the Roman era in the town of Rastan, Syria. 

OMAR SANADIKI

By oguz kayra12 October 2022

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ALCHEMY 

The 3,200-year-old perfume of Tapputi, the first female chemist in history, came to life again

One of the scent formulas written in Akkadian on clay tablets by Tapputi, known as the world’s first female perfumer and first female chemist in Mesopotamia 3,200 years ago, has been recreated.

A team of 15 experts, including academics, carried out studies to uncover the 3200-year-old formula.

Tapputi is considered to be the first registered chemist in the world, a perfume manufacturer mentioned on a cuneiform tablet dated around 1200 BC in Mesopotamia. Tapputi is referred to as Tapputi-Belatekallim (“Belatekallim” refers to the female overseer of a palace) on tablets.

In her mixtures, according to the clay tablets Tapputi recorded, Tapputi used flowers, oil, and calamus, along with cyperus, myrrh, and balsam. She mixed it with water or other solvents before distilling and filtering it multiple times.

In this study, conducted in collaboration with Koku Akademisi ve Koku Kültürü Derneği (Smell Academy and Scent Culture Association), the data that shed light on that period were reached as a result of the formulas that Tapputi wrote on a clay tablet in cuneiform.

Akkadian cuneiform tablet in which Tapputi, the first female perfumer in history, gave 3,200 years of perfume formula and making information. Photo: Wikipedia

Fragrance Expert Bihter Türkan Ergül said, “There was some information about Tapputi on clay tablets written in Akkadian. We could find answers to questions such as how it makes the smell, how it performs the distillation process, and how it reaches the liquid fragrance substances in these tablets. Each cuneiform on the tablet gave us a different excitement. The real-time travel was to be able to smell that scent as a result of the work.”

Fragrance Expert Bihter Türkan Ergül, who works with a team of 15 experts in total, said that they have been working for 3 years to bring this fragrance to light.

Mentioning that there are hundreds of tablets on the fragrance that have been unearthed so far, Ergül stated that some of them have been translated and they are continuing to work on the rest. Ergül also made the following statements about the clay tablet written by Tapputi:

Fragment expert Bihter Türkan Ergül. Photo: DHA

“In the scent formulas on the clay tablets, information such as how Tapputi made his transactions in the full moon and how he presented it to the stars one by one. In other words, it is written not only in the formula but also in the way the fragrance is made. How he distilled it, how he used fire and water, how he rested it, how he brewed it, and how he filtered it, are included in the tablet, down to the smallest detail. A total of 27 pages of translation came out of the small two tablets. It took pages to interpret. Such a wealth of information comes out of the cuneiform in such a small tablet. Here, lemon balm, myrrh, rose, and botanical plants are mentioned. Each cuneiform of this gave us a different excitement. The real-time travel was to be able to smell it at the end of the job. After this project is finished, we are left with 11 clay tablets. I don’t know if my life, in the end, will be enough to produce them, but a great effort awaits us in order to keep the scent culture alive and bring it to light again.”

Associate Professor Doctor Cenker Attila: There are two tablets in the world where the name “Tapputi” is mentioned

Stating that Tapputi uses all kinds of plants and substances such as flowers, tree resins, spices, and horseradish in the production of perfumes, Associate Professor Cenker Atila, who is an expert on ancient perfumes, ceramics, and glass works, Said, that there are only 2 tablets in the world where the name Tapputi is mentioned.

One of them is in the Louvre Museum in Paris and the other in the Girl Museum in Germany. The tablet found in the Louvre states that Tapputi was a royal perfumer and was called Belatekallim -refers to the female overseer of a palace-. We have more information on the tablet in Germany. Unfortunately, half of the tablet is mostly broken. Despite this, we learn how Tapputi works with a female assistant whose name ends with -ninu and how he distills perfumes.

Stating that there are two important problems they encountered in the translation of the tablets, Atila said, “One of them is that the tablets were broken and some important parts were lost. The second difficulty is that some plants and containers used 3200 years ago do not have the exact equivalent. For example, we do not know exactly what the “hirsu” vessel is. However, since it is used in the perfume distillation process, it should be a container like a flower pot. In addition, the fact that we do not know the current names of some spices and flowers used in perfume production appears an important problem”.

How nuclear testing leaves lasting environmental scars

With analysts predicting further nuclear tests in North Korea, the planet stands to lose. The ongoing environmental effects of nuclear testing are felt worldwide and for millions of years.

The detonated scores of nuclear weapons in its so-called Pacific Proving Grounds

Since late September, North Korea has launched a flurry of ballistic missile tests as part of what experts believe is a program to develop so-called tactical nuclear weapons. If the reclusive state were to move beyond testing missiles to testing actual nuclear warheads, as some analysts are predicting, it would not only ramp up political tensions, but also pose a significant environmental threat. 

In the past, countries such as the United States, the former Soviet Union and the United Kingdom tested their nuclear weapons in the open atmosphere and in the sea — and around Pacific Islands, the Australian desert, mainland US, remote parts of the USSR and other places. These tests left contaminated landscapes and spread their radioactive clouds far afield. 

Thanks to global treaties, nuclear tests were largely moved underground after 1963, a slightly preferable scenario environmentally speaking. And since a 1996 test ban, only India, Pakistan and North Korea have tested weapons at all. 

North Korea is the only country known to have conducted tests in the 21st century. 

The impact of nuclear testing on mammals

"The legacy of nuclear weapons testing has been absolutely catastrophic for humans and for the environment," said Alicia Sanders, the policy research coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. 

One of the unique consequences for the environment, she added, "is that it lasts essentially forever."

Putting aside the development required to set up test sites, the first major effects are felt in the microseconds after the explosion. 

A 2015 paper on the environmental impact of military actions found that nuclear blasts represent an extreme threat to local biodiversity. 

The massive energy released in the thermal emission from the blast — comprising light and heat — kills any organisms unfortunate enough to be near the epicenter. Depending on the yield of the bomb, even organisms several kilometers away face lethal temperatures. What remains is a charred mess.  

The effect from the thermal shock on animals is not well researched, but humans face serious, life-threatening burns even several kilometers away, depending on the power of the bomb. A similar effect is assumed for other mammals. They also suffer from the pressure of the blast, which causes lung damage and hemorrhaging.

And animals that aren't killed immediately are more likely to die from infections in the days and weeks following the explosion, leading to a localized die-off event, the 2015 review found.

Crater and debris following an underground detonation a nuclear device in India

The impact on plants, birds and marine life

Plants are also not spared the effects of a nuclear blast. The sheer force strips trees of their foliage, tears down branches and uproots vegetation.  

For fish, meanwhile, the impact is similar to that of a non-nuclear explosion, but on a much larger scale. The US tests in Alaska, and those of France in French Polynesia in the late 1960s and early 70s were associated with large-scale die-offs of fish, as their gas-filled swim bladders ruptured.

Marine mammals and diving birds suffered similarly, post-mortem analysis showed. However, marine non-vertebrates appeared to be more resistant to pressure waves as they do not have gas-containing organs, according to defense studies at the time. 

Long-term environmental impacts

During the Cold War, the United States detonated scores of nuclear weapons in atmospheric tests in the Pacific. Entire islands were incinerated and many are still uninhabitable. Local residents were forced to leave. A 2019 study found that some of the affected areas had radiation levels 1,000-times that of those found in Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

Significant long-term environmental consequences of nuclear testing are the contamination of surface soil and groundwater, land disturbances in the form of craters or partially collapsed mountains — as in the case of the North Korean testing site — and the addition of radionuclides to sediments in seabeds.

The landscape around the Nevada test site is pockmarked with giant craters

Atmospheric nuclear tests spread radionuclides — unstable particles that releases radiation as they break down — far and wide, contaminating topsoil.

But even in underground testing, high pressure conditions can propel radionuclides into the atmosphere — a phenomenom known as venting — where they can be carried by winds and deposited far away from the test sites and enter food-chains.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nuclear policy program, says Pyongyang has thus far avoided the pitfall of venting.

"The North Koreans have actually, with their last five nuclear tests at least, been very effective at preventing the venting of radionuclides," he said. "Because some of these radionuclides can even offer hints about the specific materials that are being used in the nuclear device."

At the very least, underground tests deposit huge quantities of radioactive material which will remain there for millions of years. The long-term ecological damage from such contamination is unknown.  

The impact on drinking water

Underground testing also poses a threat of radionuclides leeching into drinking water.

Studies at the US nuclear testing site near Las Vegas, found that some contaminants released by underground nuclear tests can get into the surrounding water. Plants and animals are particularly liable to pick up radioactive strontium and caesium, which are easily spread in water.

With a half-life of 30 years, these two radionuclides can cause health issues in the food chain for decades. A common shrub in New Mexico, chamisa, has roots that extend deep into the ground, bringing strontium back up to the surface near the Los Alamos testing site in New Mexico, from where it can be widely distributed as the leaves fall, decay, and contaminate the soil understory.

"Animals will eat from contaminated land and that becomes very dangerous. These can be key sources of food for people," ICAN's Sanders said.

Organizations such as ICAN continue to push for complete denuclearization. 

Until that happens, one factor that might help clean up the legacy of nuclear testing is a provision in the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which requires signatories to provide assistance to victims of nuclear weapons and begin to remediate contaminated environments. States should next year begin initial assessments of environmental damage and use that as a basis for future remediation efforts. 

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

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How high is the risk of Putin using a nuclear weapon?

Moscow keeps threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. But is the Russian president prepared for a nuclear conflict?  

• Date 12.10.2022
• Author Alistair Walsh

A terrifying animation shows how 1 'tactical' nuclear weapon could trigger a US-Russia war that kills 34 million people in 5 hours

Ellen Ioanes and Dave Mosher
Updated

"Plan A" is an audio-visual simulation that shows how so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons could lead to a highly fatal global conflict between the Russia, the US, and allies. Princeton University/Nuclear Futures Lab

A simulation called "Plan A" produced by researchers shows how the use of one so-called tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon could lead to a terrifying worldwide conflict.

In the roughly four-minute video, a Russian "nuclear warning shot" at a US-NATO coalition is followed by a tactical nuke that leads to a global nuclear war.

The video was produced war at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and NATO, which have again found themselves at odds over a worsening war in Ukraine.

More than 91 million people in Russia, the US, and other NATO countries might be killed or injured within three hours following a single "nuclear warning shot," according to a terrifying simulation.

The simulation is called "Plan A," and it's an audio-visual piece that was first posted to to YouTube on September 6, 2019. Researchers at the Science and Global Security lab at Princeton University created the animation, which shows how a battle between Russia and NATO allies involving the use of a so-called low-yield or "tactical" nuclear weapons — which can pack a blast equivalent to if not greater than the atomic bombs the US used to destroy Hiroshima or Nagasaki in World War II — might feasibly and quickly snowball into a global nuclear war.

"This project is motivated by the need to highlight the potentially catastrophic consequences of current US and Russian nuclear war plans. The risk of nuclear war has increased dramatically in the past two years," the project states on its website.

The video has an ominous, droning soundtrack and a digital map design straight out of the 1983 movie "WarGames." The Cold War-era movie, in which a young Matthew Broderick accidentally triggers a nuclear war, "was exactly the reference point," simulation designer Alex Wellerstein told Insider.

But while simulations can be frightening, they can also be incredibly helpful. Governments can use them to develop contingency plans to respond to nuclear disasters and attacks in the least escalatory way, and they can also help ordinary citizens learn how to survive a nuclear attack.

"Plan A" was released as tensions between Russia and NATO allies and as Russia and the US were testing weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Russia's war against Ukraine has once against put Russia and NATO at odds, with concerns growing that the war could see the use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine or expand into a broader conflict that goes nuclear.

The following shows how a NATO-Russia conflict involving a nuclear warning shot and the use of a tactical nuclear weapon could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear war.

The simulation starts with a conventional war between NATO and Russian troops.

At this point in the simulation, Russia fires a nuclear "warning shot," prompting a tactical US response. Science and Global Security, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Policy

In the scenario researchers presented, conventional warfare, which is all conflict not involving the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, escalates into nuclear warfare when Russia launches a nuclear "warning shot" from a base near Kaliningrad to stop NATO advancement. Russia doesn't have a "no first use" policy since it dropped it in 1993. NATO forces respond by launching a tactical nuclear strike.

The US already has tactical nuclear weapons, such as B61-12 gravity bombs, and the Trump administration made the development of more a priority. Russia, however, has the largest arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons.

These kinds of weapons are designed for targets on the battlefield, like troops or munitions supplies, as opposed to long- or intermediate-range nuclear missiles that are fired from one country to another, for example, targeting an enemy's bombers and ICBM silos — or even cities.

Tactical nuclear strikes up the ante.

In the simulation, both Russia and NATO up the ante with tactical strikes. Princeton Science and Global Security, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

If the nuclear threshold is crossed, the simulation finds, then both the US and Russia would respond with tactical nuclear weapons. Russia would send 300 warheads to NATO targets, including advancing troops, in both aircraft and short-range missiles — overwhelming force that would obliterate tanks, fortified positions and soldiers unlike anything ever seen in battle before. Supporting forces and civilians not immediately killed would be susceptible to painful and even fatal radiation exposure.

NATO would respond by sending about 180 tactical nuclear weapons to Russia via aircraft in equally devastating retaliation.

The simulation was constructed using independent analysis of nuclear force postures in NATO countries and Russia, including the availability of nuclear weapons, their yields, and possible targets, according to the Science and Global Security lab.

The tactical phase of the simulation shows about 2.6 million casualties over three hours.

Instead of the tactical weapons de-escalating the conflict, as proponents claim they would, the simulation shows conflict spiraling out of control after the use of tactical weapons.

The simulation shows that Russia and NATO allies would deploy nuclear weapons against each others' 30 most populous cities, killing 3.4 million over the span of 45 minutes. Princeton Science and Global Security, Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs

Russia's tactical weapons would destroy much of Europe, the simulation posits. In response, NATO would launch submarine- and US-based strategic nuclear weapons toward Russia's nuclear arsenals — 600 warheads in total.

Strategic nuclear weapons have a longer range, so Russia, knowing that NATO nukes are headed for its weapons cache, would throw all its weight behind missiles launched from silos, mobile launchers, and submarines.

The casualties during this phase would be 3.4 million in 45 minutes.

This leads to 85.3 million additional casualties in the final phase of the nuclear war simulation.

By the final stage of the simulation, there are 91.5 million casualties — all in the span of three hours. Princeton University Science and Global Security, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

In the wake of previous attacks, both Russia and NATO would launch warheads toward each other's 30 most populous cities in the final stage of of the scenario, using five to 10 warheads for each city depending on its size.

This phase would cause 85.3 million casualties — both deaths and injuries. But the total casualty count from the entire battle (of less than 5 hours) would be 34.1 million deaths and 57.4 million injuries, or a combined 91.3 million casualties overall.

But that's just the immediate conflict: The entire world would be affected by nuclear disaster in the months, years, and decades to come.

The radioactive fallout from the nuclear disaster would cause additional deaths and injuries. Studies also suggest that, even with a limited nuclear engagement, Earth's atmosphere would cool dramatically, driving famine, refugee crises, additional conflicts, and more deaths.

Update: This story originally published in 2019 has been updated and republished given concerns about tactical nuclear weapons, the war in Ukraine, and the risk of a broader war and nuclear conflict.

German angst reaches fever pitch amid cost of living crisis

Lack of affordable housing and a stagnating economy dominated this year's comprehensive study into what Germans worry about most. Authoritarianism and war also weighed heavily on people's minds.

Shops across the country have been shuttered as the rising cost of products and energy becomes

 too much to bear

A year ago, Germans were most preoccupied with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – not the prospect of getting sick, but rather the effect it would have on their wallets. According to the latest annual study on what Germans fear the most, eight months of war in Europe and inflation have now sent money anxieties into overdrive.

"Germany is experiencing its highest inflation in almost 50 years. Around half of this is due to the sharp rise in energy and food prices," the report published on Thursday said. "Accordingly, the fears of an explosion in the cost of living are correspondingly high." Indeed, the 67% of respondents who said they feared they could not cope with increasing costs represents a massive increase of 17 points on the previous year.

​

Financial fears 'skyrocket'

Conducted by insurance giant R+V Versicherung every year, the study polls some 2,400 people across the country about what most weighs on their minds. While in previous years, study leaders have noted that "Germans aren't by nature worrywarts" and are simply reacting to the acute challenges around them, this year's study paints a different picture.

In 2022, "the general anxiety index…rose by six percentage points and, at 42%, reached its highest level in four years," said study leader Grischa Brower-Rabinowitsch. "That anxious peek into one's bank account balance is causing financial fears to skyrocket. Overall, people are significantly more worried than they were a year ago."

Affordable housing crisis looming

Indeed, in a country where debt has long been a taboo, the study revealed that in 2022, financial fears have reached new heights – with different economic worries taking over the top five spots.

Study co-author Manfred Schmidt, professor emeritus of political science at Heidelberg University, told DW that in a country where "inflation is seen as a societal illness," it is no wonder money worries have overtaken fears about the climate or the pandemic.

This includes the worry of being able to find affordable housing, something that has never appeared before in the study's 36-year history, and jumped straight to the number-two biggest worry in the minds of Germans, affecting more than half of respondents.

While other countries have struggled for decades with rising rents and large investors scooping up homes that previously would have been sold to single families, Germans felt relatively unaffected by these issues until recently. Although Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government has presented a plan to build 400,000 new affordable homes per year, experts have warned that inflation and the lack of qualified personnel will make this goal difficult to attain.

According to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, or Destatis, the number of new apartments available has plunged since the 1990s, and stagnated since a short uptick in the early 2010s. At the same time, rents have increased drastically while wages have not, especially in big cities, where rents are about 21% higher than the national average.

Schmidt explained that on top of increasing real estate costs, there is "a much greater need for housing for smaller households," meaning those comprising fewer people, than there has been in the past. "The demand for this far outweighs what is available."

Public wary of war, climate change

Besides driving inflation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also brought the prospect of war to the forefront of people's minds. In a country where defense spending has long been deeply unpopular, the idea of entering a war has now become even more anathema to Germans.

In that vein, the rise of authoritarianism worldwide – something that had never come up in the study before – jumped in the top ten concerns, and the worry that Germany could be dragged into a war rose by 26 points to place eleventh.

Another major worry was climate change. Although Germany did not experience any natural disasters this year on the same scale as the catastrophic flooding in the west of the country in July 2021, summer droughts and heatwaves, as well as disasters elsewhere in the world, coupled with perceived government inaction, ensured that climate breakdown was not far from people's minds. Some 46% of respondents told R+V they were worried about the climate in 2022, compared to 40% in 2021.

"Climate worries are no longer theoretical, they are tangible," said Brower-Rabinowitsch on Thursday.

Opinion: Iran protests a struggle for self-determination

In their struggle for self-determination, Iranians are displaying a level of courage and cohesion we have not seen before. That's why the protests sparked by Jina Mahsa Amini's death are feminist, writes Katajun Amirpur.

Students in a girls' school in Tehran remove their headscarves in protest against the

 Iranian government

The uprising in Iran is feminist. After all, feminism isn't about putting women in power instead of men. It is about self-determination for all, men and women alike. And today's protesters regard the enforced wearing of the hijab as a symbol of the state's refusal to grant them self-determination.

This right covers much more than "just" the right to dress as you like; it means the 50% of Iranians whose first language isn't Farsi being allowed to learn their first languages in schools; it means lesbians and gay men being able to freely express their sexual orientation; it means the Bahai being allowed to practice their religion — and so on.

Katajun Amirpur is a scholar of Islam and an expert on Iran. She lives and works in Cologne.

The artist Shervin Hajipour's song "Baraye" (meaning "for" or "because"), which has become a hymn of the uprising, summarizes a series of Twitter posts in which protesters give their reasons for taking to the streets: for dancing in the street; for the girl who wishes she was born a boy; for freedom, freedom, freedom. And there may well be as many men as women currently demonstrating for these things. In this respect, too, the videos that are now going viral are probably giving us a skewed picture.

But the hijab is symbolic of all this, and that is why young girls are now tearing off their headscarves. Ironically, the hijab has been used as the ultimate symbol for systemic change in Iran once before, during the revolution that took place in 1978/79. And it looks like it might be again.

A sledgehammer approach to modernization

The hijab is tightly bound up with the history of emancipation in Iran, in the sense of liberation from a paternalistic state — and not just since 1978, the year of the last Iranian revolution of the 20th century: Reza Shah Pahlavi banned women from wearing it in 1936. Reza Shah, the Cossack general who rose to become an emperor, wanted to modernize his country in every way, even aesthetically — and he was prepared to take a sledgehammer approach to achieve this. And so Iranian women were banned by law from wearing a headscarf. The state itself tore the hijab from the heads of women in the street.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who succeeded his father on the throne, was at first a weak, indulgent ruler. Under his regime the hijab ban was less strictly enforced. Women and girls were free to wear a hijab in schools and on the street. It could still be detrimental to your career, however. An employee in a ministry or a bank, for instance, would have to choose between their headscarf and their job. Nor could they be worn in universities.

Mohammad Reza continued his father's policy of westernization, which was once again shown first and foremost in outward appearances, such as the women wearing miniskirts and high heels who were now to be seen on the streets of Tehran.

This new image for women — and the fact that they were much more present in public — met with resistance from sections of the conservative population. In an impressive study, the sociologist Martin Riesebrodt showed that the changes to the role of women was not just one of many points on the Islamists' agenda, but their central concern.

Ali Shariati, for example, who was arguably the revolution's most important ideologue, said the new Iranian woman had become a tawdry doll who wanted only to please. He wrote: "So-called religion makes cry-babies of our women; so-called civilization makes them barmaids." The changes were not just to women's appearance, but also to their legal status. In the 1960s, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's criticism of the shah also focused on the new family law, which was designed to give women greater legal equality.

Hijab as a symbol of protest against the shah

Although the shah certainly introduced some laws that improved women's legal status, including giving them the right to vote, he remained primarily a dictator to them. In 1978, many Iranian women began wearing a hijab when they took to the streets to demonstrate against political oppression, as a way of manifesting their anti-shah position. The headscarf became the ultimate symbol of protest against the shah.

Women also played a crucial role in the toppling of the shah's regime. The opposition politician and women's rights campaigner Parvaneh Eskandari, who was murdered in 1998 by henchmen of the Islamist regime, once made a statement that may seem surprising in light of the situation of women under the current regime. "Women played the same role as men [in toppling the shah — Editor's note]. But you mustn't forget that women had more constraints placed on them under the shah. In religion, they saw a way to overcome those constraints."

The revolutionary leader Khomeini had promised freedom in all areas, but what followed was history repeating itself, though the omens were reversed. The headscarf became compulsory. Three rulers, one maxim: we will prescribe how women must dress, and deny them self-determination even in their choice of clothing.

Iranian scholars debate the hijab

Admittedly, things had been shifting in Iran for a long time prior to the protests that have now broken out — at least in the debate around the headscarf. And even among the imams, who are traditionally the hijab's greatest advocates. Ayatollah Fazel Meybodi from the theologists' capital of Ghom, for example, explained some years ago that, "The religious enlightener argues: I believe in the hijab. But a government interfering and saying, woman, why are you not wearing a hijab, no, I don't accept that. That is not the job of a government.”

There was some danger involved in making any critical statement about the hijab, as the case of liberal cleric Hasan Eshkevari shows. He said: "The hijab is not one of the essential features of our religion; it is one of those social commandments that can change depending on circumstances."

These words saw him charged with renouncing his religion in 2001, an offense that carries the death penalty in Iran. [Eshkevari was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment — Editor's note.]

And it is not only Iranian history that can be written in relation to the headscarf. It is also the ultimate symbol of this Iranian system. There are only three ideological pillars that make Iran an Islamic Republic. Two of them — the Iranian state doctrine and anti-Americanism — have been increasingly called into question since the late 1990s.

IRAN PROTESTS: RALLIES AND GRAFFITI WORLDWIDE IN SUPPORT OF IRANIAN WOMEN
At the Iranian Embassy in Mexico City
A woman spray-paints messages against "macho country" Iran on a wall of the Iranian Embassy in Mexico City in solidarity with Iranian women and in memory of Jina Mahsa Amini — the 22-year-old woman who died in custody after she was detained by Iranian authorities for allegedly violating strict Islamic dress codes for women.
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And then there is the hijab. It isn't unfair of the West to associate the word "Iran” with the headscarf first and foremost. If Iran were to scrap this symbol, it would probably serve as sufficient evidence for the West that Iran was willing to reform. But that would be shortsighted.

Fear is dissipating

For this reason, the Islamists will cling to this piece of fabric for as long as they possibly can. The feminist lawyer Mehrangiz Kar once made a compelling argument for why Islamic systems of rule usually begin with the oppression of women. "They're choosing the weakest victims to create an atmosphere of fear. When fear rules, then everyone is afraid and the rulers can stabilize their power. It's impossible to imagine half of the people living in fear and at the same time the population as a whole confidently grappling with political problems."

For many people, this fear has now abated. The whole of the young generation is so fed up of being infantilized, disciplined and monitored that they are now hitting back when the regime's henchmen start beating them. You can see this right now on the many videos being shared on social media, and it's new.

In this struggle for self-determination, people are displaying a level of courage and cohesion we haven't seen before. For that reason, what we are seeing now is feminist. And feminist foreign policy would mean supporting Iranians in this feminist aim to achieve self-determination in their lives. 

This article was originally published on Qantara.de.

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• Date 13.10.2022