Mandana Karimi stages protest in Mumbai against hijab row in Iran; Taslima Nasreen asks, 'Why is she protesting alone?'

Actress Mandana Karimi, who hails from Iran, staged a solo protest in Mumbai against the hijab row. She even documented the same in a video that she had shared on her now-private Instagram account. The video showed her standing alone at Mumbai's bandstand, holding a placard had texts and pictures of what is happening in Iran.

She was also seen interacting with passers-by and students while telling them about the plight of the people in Iran, especially women.

She captioned the video, "For Iran, for my mother’s tears, for my brother’s broken face and heart, for sleepless nights, for freedom for life.”

On Wednesday (October 5), Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen took to Twitter to ask why Mandana is not joined by women from the Muslim community "who are forced to wear hijab".

She tweeted, "Iranian actress Mandana Karimi staged a solo protest in Mumbai against the hijab. Why is she alone protesting? Why are Muslim women from Mumbai who are forced to wear hijab not joining her?"

A massive outrage has sparked in Iran after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed by Iran's morality police on September 6. She was allegedly arrested for loosely wearing a headscarf.

After her death, men and women in Iran staged protests on the streets of Iran. The women protestors were seen chopping off their hair and burning headscarves to showcase their protest against Amni's death.

For the unversed, Mandana recently revealed in a new interview that she has quit Bollywood after Sajid Khan was roped in as one of the contestants of Bigg Boss 16.

She told Hindustan Times, "It does make me feel sad. To be honest, that is also the reason I have not worked for the last seven months. I’m not working anymore. I didn’t go to any auditions. I don’t want to work in Bollywood. I don’t want to be involved with an industry where there is no respect for women.”

Talking about Sajid's entry into the house, she said, "To be honest, I’m not surprised to see him back in the spotlight. For people, life has become like I will put my head under the sand. If it is going to benefit me, and I can make money, then who cares? That shows why the MeToo movement in India and many other countries didn’t really reach anywhere,” she said. Mandana said just a few women came forward and spoke about their experiences during the #MeToo movement but “that was it."