One result of the recent Palestinian elections is the growing alliance between Hamas and the Iranian regime. Hamas leaders have clearly stated their intention to direct Palestinian foreign policy relations away from the US and EU and toward Iran.
Yet even as this trans-Islamist partnership blossoms (bridging Sunni Islamists and Shi'ite Islamists), the Iranian authorities are cracking down on one of the main icons of Palestinian nationalism and solidarity: the keffiyeh. News of the crackdown comes from the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which is reporting on the Iranian regime's latest repression of the Ahwazi Arab minority:
Ahwazis are using officially sanctioned religious festivals as a space for protest against the regime's policy of ethnic cleansing in Khuzestan and extreme poverty. In defiance of the regime's persecution, they have displayed symbols of Arab cultural identity, including wearing of the red keffiyeh and dishdasha, flying the Ahwaz national flag and performing Arab cultural plays in the streets.
Security chiefs have previously indicated that the wearing of the keffiyeh - a traditional Arab headdress - was forbidden. In November's Eid-al-Fitr demonstrations in Ahwaz, Governor General Heyat Mojadam ordered all those wearing keffiyeh be arrested. An Ahwazi Arab youth freed from prison following his arrest during the Eid-al-Fitr protests spoke of how the prosecutor, Mr Farhadi-Rad, argued that the wearing of the red keffiyeh was a "political statement" that indicated support for secessionism.
Gotta love the irony. It's quite a civil rights nadir when you get arrested simply for the style of your scarf. Call the fashion police!
Dude, I was flying from Manchester NH to Burbank CA earlier in the month. I bought this sweet keffiyeh when I was in Europe over Xmas break. My mother told me not to wear it in the airport (and this wasn't even Logan, it was Manchester), now I'm glad I followed her advice.
Ps. How do you tie it in the way the man in the photo is wearing it? I'm trying to figure that out.
Posted by: Julia | January 31, 2008 at 02:45 AM