Mr. Speaker, news reports this morning state that lranian police have arrested 29 women who have protested the country's oppressive laws against women by removing their hijabs in public places and waving them aloft on long poles. I am asking all of my colleagues here to stand with me to demand the release of these women and to demand that Iran reverse laws that oppress and degrade women.
I also ask all of my colleagues to stand united in understanding that the equality of women has long been diminished by laws, religious or otherwise, and patriarchal social mores that attempt to blame the presentation of a woman's body for various societal ills.
The right of a woman to choose how she clothes herself should be left to a woman alone, not to her family, her spouse, her faith community, or her government. If any of those actors try to remove that agency, we should support her through reclamation of her rights, not impose more restrictions upon her.
Equality will only come when we stand united behind this principle rather than behind laws or mores that oppose it using a warped notion of equality itself for cover.