YOUR FAVORITE MTV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

These Iranian Women Are Using Their Hair As A Powerful Form Of Protest

They're fighting for their freedom of choice.

Wearing the veil known as hijab has been mandatory for women in Iran since 1983 when the requirement was made law. In fact, according to organizations like the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center "women, who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or a fine" of 50,000 to 500 Rials under the country's Islamic Penal Code.

Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist born and raised in Iran, had personal experience with the law and decided to do something about it. She told Vox: "As a kid my brother was an example of freedom that I didn't have ... he was free to run in a green, lovely farm without [a] head scarf."

Choosing not to wear the hijab has serious consequences in Iran. The head of national security forces there, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, confirmed that that in 2014 alone, "approximately 3.6 million women in Iran were warned, fined, or arrested by the morality police for inappropriate dress."

Vox/YouTube

In other countries, Islamic women can decide whether they want to wear the hijab, for cultural and/or religious reasons. It's the lack of choice in her home country that inspired Alinejad -- who lives in the U.S. now -- to create a Facebook page called My Stealthy Freedom. After posting photos of herself with and without her hijab, other Iranian women began to send photos of themselves in a similar fashion.

Here are some of the powerful images from the Facebook page. At press time, it has over 823,000 followers:

"Freedom, in addition to allowing me NOT to wear the hijab, should also allow others to wear it if they choose to do so," wrote one of the women featured on the page.

You can check out the rest of the short film on Alinejad and My Stealthy Freedom below:

Latest News