Cross-dressing Kurds in Iran to support women’s rights

 

Richard Hall
Thursday 25 April 2013 10:59 BST
Comments

A group of men from the Kurdish community in religiously conservative Iran have found a novel way of supporting women's rights: cross-dressing.

In a protest over the treatment of women in their community, dozens of men have uploaded pictures of themselves dressed in women's clothes to a public Facebook group.

Organisers say the Kurd Men for Equality campaign was launched after a judge in the Marivan region of northwestern Iran ordered a man convicted of domestic abuse to be paraded through the streets in women's clothes.

A local feminist group held protests and called the punishment "misogynistic", while a group of 17 Iranian MPs wrote to the justice ministry decrying it as "humiliating to Muslim women."

The online campaign was launched in solidarity with the protests, and men began to upload photographs of themselves in traditional, brightly coloured Kurdish women's garb. The campaign's message was simple, according to one of the organisers: "Being a woman is not a means of punishing and humiliating anyone".

Over 150 photographs of men dressed in all manner of dresses, veils and scarfs were uploaded to the group, which has been 'liked' by more than 7,000 Facebook users.

The campaign has drawn support from Kurdish communities across the world, and has even prompted women to upload pictures of themselves in men's clothing.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in