Australian FM defends wearing headscarf during Iran trip

Conservatives and women’s rights activists chided Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop over her choice to cover her hair during a recent trip to Tehran, while supporters defended the decision as respectful of another country’s customs.

Andrew Bolt, an Australian commentator, told Employment Minister Eric Abetz that Bishop “looked frankly, ridiculous” in a headscarf and hat, asking if she shouldn’t have “stood up for Western values.”

Journalist and advocate Masih Alinejad, who runs the Facebook page “My Stealthy Freedom,” called for Bishop to eschew the hijab while visiting the Islamic country. Alinejad’s page supports Iranian women who break the country’s strict modesty laws by removing their head coverings.

“Madam Bishop was asked not to give in to the compulsory veil and to raise her voice very much like numerous Iranian women who have started doing so,” she said.

But as reports of Bishop’s meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came out and Alinejad saw the Australian politician had opted to wear a headscarf during her visit, she said, “We will press forward so that our demands are eventually met.”

Bishop traveled to Tehran to discuss the problem of Iranian asylum-seekers in Australia. Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters last week, “We will be talking to the Iranian government about taking back people who are… Iranian citizens, because they deserve to be in Iran. They belong in Iran.”

Approximately 45 Iranian asylum-seekers are in indefinite detention in Australia, according to local news outlets. Those 45 have already been rejected for refugee status but are refusing to return to Iran.

The executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs, John Roskam, defended the foreign minister’s choice as a necessary evil. “Julie Bishop has gone to Iran to seek their cooperation,” he told Bolt on Sunday. “That’s the reality: We need a favor from them.”

“What happens in Iran is women are subjugated. The hijab is compulsory,” Roskam continued. “Iran is a totalitarian state. But if you are the foreign minister going to a totalitarian state, not wearing a hat, not wearing a hijab, it is unlikely to get the cooperation that we now need from Iran.”

Employment Minister Eric Abetz further said that Bishop “looks a picture — even with that hat on.”

Abetz said Bishop’s head covering was purely a sign of respect and understanding. “If the culture is to take off your shoes visiting somebody else’s home, then you should take off your shoes,” he said.

Earlier this year US First Lady Michelle Obama stirred controversy when she forwent a head-covering on a trip to Saudi Arabia. Some called her choice a bold feminist statement, while others called it antagonistic to the Islamic kingdom.

Bishop told the Sydney Morning Herald she did not see wearing a scarf as an imposition.

“As a matter of fact I wear scarves and hats and headgear quite often as part of my everyday wear,” she said.