--- title: Iranian Women Defy Cycling Ban with My Stealthy Freedom Site description: Following the recent fatwa on cycling issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian women have taken to social media in open criticism canonical: https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-21T18:05:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:25.889Z og:title: Iranian Women Defy Cycling Ban with My Stealthy Freedom Site og:description: Following the recent fatwa on cycling issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian women have taken to social media in open criticism og:url: https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5406b52106a0e1b/6988a7020b72e3fc1f6eb135/iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: iran og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iranian Women Defy Cycling Ban with My Stealthy Freedom Site twitter:description: Following the recent fatwa on cycling issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian women have taken to social media in open criticism twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5406b52106a0e1b/6988a7020b72e3fc1f6eb135/iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Iranian Women Get on Their Bicycles in Defiance of Fatwa by [Suyin Haynes](/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Sep 21, 2016 6:05 PM CUT  Facebook by [Suyin Haynes](/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Sep 21, 2016 6:05 PM CUT Iranian women are sharing pictures and videos of themselves riding bicycles on social media, after the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa against women cyclists. Khamenei’s edict was issued on Sept. 10 via state media and banned women from riding bikes in public spaces, such as streets and parks. Women are now only permitted to ride bicycles in spaces reserved especially for them, such as women-only parks or stadiums, which can be found in most large and mid-sized Iranian cities. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) [reported](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-21/iranian-women-keep-cycling-to-protest-fatwa/7864518 "undefined") that Mr Khamenei told state media “Riding a bicycle often attracts the attention of men and exposes the society to corruption, and thus contravenes women’s chastity, and it must be abandoned.” The reaction has been to take to social media in a show of defiance. Iranian women have published photos of themselves on their bikes, notably on the Facebook page “[My Stealthy Freedom](https://www.facebook.com/StealthyFreedom/ "undefined"),” where women had previously [posted photos of themselves without their veils](http://observers.france24.com/en/20140512-woman-hijab-facebook-iran-photos "undefined"), which are obligatory in Iran. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist who started My Stealthy Freedom, has [urged](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/21/defiant-iranian-women-post-videos-of-themselves-cycling-on-faceb/ "undefined") women in the country to show themselves cycling, and to use the hashtag #IranianWomenLoveCycling. “This fatwa has received much ridicule on social media,” Ms Alinejad told the ABC. “It is absolutely shameful to hear such a backward fatwa against women in the 21st century … it is unacceptable in 2016.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/"},"headline":"Iranian Women Get on Their Bicycles in Defiance of Fatwa","datePublished":"2016-09-21T18:05:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:25.889Z","description":"Iranian women rally against decision using the hashtag #IranianWomenLoveCycling","url":"https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/","keywords":["motto","women","Social Media","Iran"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5406b52106a0e1b/6988a7020b72e3fc1f6eb135/iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suyin Haynes","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5406b52106a0e1b/6988a7020b72e3fc1f6eb135/iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"iran","caption":"","creditText":"Facebook","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4503045/iranian-women-bicycles-fatwa/","name":"Iranian Women Get on Their Bicycles in Defiance of Fatwa"}}]}] ```