Why is the Fashion Industry Silent on Iran? Op-ed by Nika Diamond-Krendel
It has been over three weeks since the death of Mahsa Amini sparked widespread unrest threatening the legitimacy of Iran's 43 year old theocratic regime. Since then, mass protests showing support for the Iranian people have ensued across over 150 cities worldwide. The name of Mahsa Amini was splayed across the stage of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters’ latest tour, whilst Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Bella Hadid and Kim Kardashian all showed their support for their Iranian friends on social media, which has contributed to breaking a record of over 100 million retweets of #mahsaamini on Twitter. Then to eclipse it all, Elon Musk provided an emergency satellite starlink to Iranians suffering from an internet shutdown. Despite tight control of the internet by the Iranian regime, the scale of dissent is unprecedented in the recent history of the Middle East and Iranian women are at the forefront of it. And yet the fashion industry, which has always been a megaphone for different rights movements over the years, especially when it comes to feminism, has been strangely silent.
We have seen outcries from the fashion industry in response to the #Metoo movement, Black Lives Matter and the recent invasion of Ukraine. Surely if you are an advocate for human rights, you are an advocate for all human rights, right? Wrong. Unfortunately it seems Iran is not ‘on brand’. Iranian women are seen only through the lens of an oppressed regime and have a history of negative portrayal by the western media. As many have always suspected, the message of diversity we have seen the fashion industry peddling in recent years is often little not more than virtue signalling in a world where Iranian women don’t matter. To be fair, this isn’t unique to the fashion industry - Iranian women have been invisible under a cloaked veil for over forty years. But that’s why it is so important that the fashion industry looks beyond the stereotype of Iranian women. The pre-1979 Iran of the Shah was not only the centre of the Persian Empire, but a global centre of culture and fashion with Tehran once labelled the Paris of the Middle East.
Too bad for the rest of the fashion industry, it looks like only Balenciaga, Gucci and The Kering Foundation understood the assignment. Fashion has always been a woman’s armour and it is no different for Iranian women. These forward thinking brands have recognised that under a brutal regime, Iranian women have used fashion as a non-verbal communicator of their otherwise oppressed identity, by pushing the boundaries of Islamic dress for the last forty years. Similarly, throughout the diaspora, Iranian women have used fashion to rebut the kind of stereotypes they regularly face. Not only have other brands missed out on the opportunity to pledge their support and thereby shape the public discourse, they have also missed a lucrative opportunity within the Iranian diaspora, and perhaps even a thriving post-Islamic Republic Iran. Whether it's protesting for the autonomy of their fashion choices, or fighting for their fundamental human rights, Iranian women are paving the way. It’s time for us all to decide which side of history we want to be on.
* Mahsa Amini died while she was in custody for not wearing her headscarf properly
** Iran of the Persian Empire was the first country in the world to charter human rights. According to Amnesty, it now has one of the worst records in the world on human rights
Nika Diamond-Krendel is Founder of Paradise Row and co-founder of Zanaee.