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In a video posted to the East Plano Islamic Center's YouTube channel on September 29, 2022, prominent American Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi spoke about the protests that have been taking place in Iran since the recent death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died after being beaten and arrested by Iran's "morality police" for wearing her hijab "improperly". He said that there is a "double standard" in the West, pointing out that those who support the anti-hijab protests are not fighting for people's rights to walk around naked in the West. He argued that most of the world's countries have laws against public nudity and indecency. He also said that there is a hidden Western political and financial agenda at play that has nothing to do with the dignity of Iranian women. He added: "What is happening here is a vicious chess game and you are seeing only one move." For more about Yasir Qadhi, see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 9417, 8433, 8401, 7640, and 7451.
Yasir Qadhi: "In the last two weeks I have been inundated with dozens of emails with one particular focus or theme...
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"...regarding the enforcement of the hijab in a particular country, and apparently it caused the death of somebody.
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"In every single state, there are laws against indecency, and if you show certain parts of the body, and if you show certain organs of your body, you shall be fined, and if you continue to do so, you shall go to jail.
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"But the notion of the state telling you a minimal amount that you can wear, that is pretty much universal. And even in those lands where there's no law against nudity — there are some countries in Europe and what not, where you're not gonna go to jail or what not — there is still laws against obscenity. Practicing conjugal relationships with somebody in public, that will get you into jail pretty much anywhere.
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"What I'm asking you to think about, dear sister, is to look through the double standards, and to understand that this notion of fetishizing the hijab and the headscarf, and saying 'Oh, they have the right to not wear it,' well then why aren't these same people fighting for the rights of nudity here in Texas? Why aren't they fighting for the rights of no man and woman — or sorry, every man and woman — to wear nothing in every single state in Europe and every single country and city across the world? They're not doing that, so why then should the norms of one land, here in America, be the norms of the Middle East?
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"Do you really wanna jump on the bandwagon of a country that has invaded three other countries, that has been the direct cause of the death of over a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, that has destabilized the entire middle east, that has supported dictators for the last 50 years?"
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