Summary Iranian newspapers paid tributes to the late mathematician publishing pictures of her without hijab
(Web Desk) - Iranian newspapers defied the strict rules for women to cover their head in public places by portraying pictures of the genius mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani without any hijab - mandatory for women to wear since the Islamic Revolution, in rich tributes that were published following her death.
The Iran-born mathematician battling with cancer, died at the age of 40. She was the first woman who won one of the most prestigious medals in the field of mathematics.
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Maryam Mirzakhani portrait on the front of Iranian newspapers. With and without Hijab
Mirzakhani was born and raised in Iran. Later, she finished her PhD at Harvard in 2004.
In 2014 when Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal which is equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics, the Iranian newspapers used every possible mean to avoid showing her hair, either by improvising a picture of her wearing a hijab or using her old pictures in hijab, according to The Guardian.
Newspapers like Hamshahri, a centrist newspaper owned by the municipality of Tehran and reformist economic daily Donyaye Eghtesad used her portraits without any hijab.
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Front cover of Hamshahri newspaper
"The Queen of Mathematics Eternal Departure," Donyaye Eghtesad s headline read.
The reformist Shargh daily published a photo of her wearing a hat under the headline "The Queen of Numbers Land", while some others used designs and photo editing to fade her signature short hair into a black backdrop.
Other newspapers continued to use older photographs or sketches showing Mirzakhani wearing a headscarf. Only ultraconservative newspapers Resalat and Keyhan did not feature her picture on the front page, with the latter covering her story in an inside page with a picture of her wearing hijab.
Messages of grief also poured in on social media, including from senior officials. President Hassan Rouhani was among the first to react following news of her death, posting a recent picture of Mirzakhani on Instagram without her head covered.
— (@Rouhani_ir) July 15, 2017
Mirzakhani has become a symbol of breaking the taboos even after her death. The Guardian adds that a group of parliamentarians in Iran on Sunday urged the speeding up of an amendment to a law that would allow children of Iranian mothers married to foreigners to be given Iranian nationality.
She is survived by her Czech scientist husband and her daughter. Marriage between an Iranian woman and a non-Muslim man was previously not recognised, resulting into complicating visits to Iran by their children. Fars news agency reported on Sunday that 60 MPs were pressing for the amendments so that Mirzakhani’s daughter could visit Iran.
