Those Who Dare to Bare Their Hair

MASIH ALINEJAD HASN’T LIVED IN IRAN FOR A DECADE. But that hasn’t stopped her from becoming the driving force behind the largest, most sustained civil disobedience movement that the country has seen in recent years.

Her focus is the mandatory headscarf, which Iranian women have been obligated to wear since the 1979 revolution. Her followers inside Iran number in the thousands. When Alinejad’s campaign against the compulsory hijab began in 2014, women who joined her first posted pictures of themselves on social media with their heads uncovered but their faces turned away from the camera. Now some even speak directly to the camera in videos that show them walking, unveiled, on Iranian streets or pushing back against the morality police. Men have begun joining as well, voicing their support or donning the veil in solidarity with women who are forced to wear it.

Every day, followers send Alinejad pictures and videos via Facebook,