The gesture has become the ultimate sign of support for women protesting in Iran: cutting their hair. And that’s what Melek Mosso did on stage. It was three days ago, in Istanbul, during a performance in the Harbiye open-air amphitheater. After a few songs, she stopped and explained that she wanted to pay homage to Mahsa Amini, this Iranian woman who died under the blows of the morality police, because a lock of hair protruded from her headscarf.
The singer explained that the intense mobilization that is taking place in Iran at the moment “must not fall into silence“, and that, to mark his support for his “iranian sisters“, she was going to cut her hair. One of her assistants therefore passed her a pair of scissors and she made her brown locks fall to her feet, one by one, to the applause of her audience who recorded everything, filmed everything. and everything posted on social media.
Today, the video is taken up by news sites in Turkey, but also by Thai or Indian media. And that’s exactly what she hoped for, because she knows that’s how it works: you have to shock, provoke, shout, make such a noise that silencing you becomes impossible, too conspicuous, too compromising .
Melek Mosso knows what she is talking about. In 2020, she criticized the release of police officers accused of rape and murder. Results: big arms had come to challenge her on stage, her and her musicians. Last May, she was also deprogrammed from the Isparta festival by the municipality itself for her outfits deemed “too light”.
İran’daki kızkardeşlerim haklı direnişlerinde yanlarındayım. Onları yalnız bırakmayan erkeklerin de Bu dünyayı kadınlar güzelleştirecek Herkes için eşit ve özgür dünya ✊ #Mahsa_Amini pic.twitter.com/oJcmzJneVf
— Melek Mosso (@MelekMosso) September 21, 2022
Thus, her gesture speaks for Iranian women, but also reminds us that what is happening in Iran does not only concern Iran, and not only women, and not only the veil. It is a fight for human rights, to denounce the laws of silence, the impunity that certain powers arrogate to themselves. Especially in Turkey.
With this video, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ears must be ringing a little. But also those of all those who decree prohibitions or obligations, all those who infantilize women, sexualize them, those who repress, who kill, who think above all that indignation is temporary, that the world will end up forgetting. Melek Mosso’s cut hair responds to them, to remind anyone who doubts that you can’t silence an idea.