Turban knocking

Ammāmeparāni (Persian:عمامه‌پرانی; "turban throwing", "knocking off the turban"), often referred to as turban knocking in English, is a hate crime in which people knock or throw the turban off the head of a mullah (Persian: Akhund) in order to insult the Shia clergy. The action is normally done via the protester running past the subject and knocking the headdress while continuing to run off to avoid capture. During the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran of 2022, people would take videos doing this action, publishing them on social media, resulting in a brief popularization of the protest method.

Turban knocking soon came to be seen as an expression of women’s resistance to the clerical establishment, with women who premeditated the act doing so while lacking a hair covering, an act punishable by law. Engaging in this illegal act, was, however, purposeful, as well as holding precedent. Combining these two forms of protest, as simply as the act of a woman refusing to cover their hair, serves three purposes, amongst others. First is acting as an expression of refusal to cooperate with Iranian theocratic law. Second is acting as an expression of civil disobedience towards the Iranian Morality Police, who during the Mahsa Amini protests were a primary target of the goals of the protesters. Third is acting to increase attention to the protests, indicate the existence of civil discontent, and promote engagement and topical virality, by engaging in such a contextually politically, religiously, and socially controversial act, and consequently angering sympathizers of the status quo.

Qaba (Qabā; Persian: عبا) and Ammame (Arabic: عمامة `emãmah) are clothes of Muslim clergy and some believe that this dress is the dress of the Prophet of Islam and should be respected.