Elnaaz Norouzi, an Iranian-born actor best known for her role in the Netflix series Sacred Games, has joined the widespread demonstration of Iranian women against the country’s “morality police” by stating that women have the freedom to wear whatever they like.
In a video uploaded to her Instagram account, Ms. Norouzi joined the protest by removing many layers of clothing to emphasize that she can wear anything she wants and that no one can stop her.
“Every woman, anywhere in the world, regardless of where she is from, should have the right to wear whatever she desires and when or wherever she desires to wear it. No man nor any other woman has the right to judge her or ask her to dress otherwise,” Ms. Norouzi wrote in the Instagram post.
“Everyone has different views and beliefs and they have to be respected. Democracy means the power to decide…Every Woman should have the power to decide over her own body. I am not promoting nudity, I am promoting freedom of choice,” she wrote.
Ms. Norouzi worked as an international model for companies like Dior, Lacoste, and Le Coq Sportif for more than ten years prior to beginning her acting career.
She had training in conventional Persian dancing. She has been studying Kathak dance in India.
For more than ten years, Iranian women who went outside, even for a simple errand, did so out of fear of being caught by the infamous morality police.
People who violate the Islamic Republic’s rigorous clothing code risk being dragged into one of the vice units’ green-and-white vans and given instructions on how to wear their headscarves or receive a severe beating.
Iranian women have endured far worse. Mahsa Amini, 22, was one of them. She was apprehended by Tehran’s morality police on September 16 and pronounced dead three days later.
Women have been burning their hijab headscarves as part of a wave of protests against her death, which activists claim was caused by a blow to the head and officials attribute to a pre-existing medical condition.
