Iranian Turban Flippers 'Twisting Lion’s Tail': Cleric Lawmaker
An Iranian member of the parliament says those who toss the turbans of clerics in Iran will see the result of their act as they are “playing the lion’s tail.”
An Iranian member of the parliament says those who toss the turbans of clerics in Iran will see the result of their act as they are “playing the lion’s tail.”
Mohammad Taghi Naghd Ali said the turban-tossing protest movement in recent weeks is a “conspiracy of the devils.”
“Clergymen may bear with it and be patient, but those who play with the lion's tail must be aware they would face the music,” noted the representative of Khomeini Shahr in the Iranian parliament, not elaborating further.
Tossing the turbans of clergymen as they are walking in streets is now part of the current wave of antigovernment protests across Iran, which started as a reaction to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police. Younger Iranians tired of government attempts to force them to observe the mandatory Islamic dress code and a restricted lifestyle, began protests and disobedience in mid-September.
The phenomenon has forced many clerics to tie their turbans under their chins or use other head coverings to keep them on their heads as they walk in the streets.
This new addition to the ongoing protests has caused a stir among regime officials and has even made Iraqi Shia cleric and politician Muqtada al-Sadr worried that the trend may spread to his side of the border as a form of protest to Islamic autocracy. He released a statement to condemn the act after many Iraqi young people started to dare their friends on social media to flip some turbans.
After the recent statements of Javad Shahrestani, Ayatollah Sistani’s son-in-law, who claimed the nationwide protests in Iran “are not popular at all,” in a short statement on Wednesday the Grand Ayatollah stated that “any political stance” by him will be communicated through his office.
Javad Shahrestani, who introduces himself as the representative of Sistani, had called the Iranian protesters “a bunch of rioters,” saying “it is not clear where they came from and what kind of enemy they are guided by.”
These statements are made in a situation that the Iranian state media and insiders repeatedly call the protesters "garbage", "lewd", "jaunty", "flies", "thugs" and "ISIS" in their speeches against the great movement of Iranian people.
In its latest, the commander of the Army's Ground Forces called the demonstrators "flies" in his speech on Wednesday.
In the past four decades, Iran's government has always called popular protests "riots" and by using the term "enemy", it has accused the West, especially the United States and Britain of leading these protests.
Ayatollah Sistani rarely comments on current political issues. However, Moqtada al-Sadr, another influential Shia figure in Iraq, has expressed concern that opposition to the mandatory hijab in Iran may spread to other countries in the region.
