Women around the world are burning headscarves to mark No Hijab Day, in solidarity with those forced to wear a veil.

A wave of angry protest recently erupted in Iran when women climbed telecom boxes and waved their headscarves from poles to publicly object to wearing veil .

At least 29 women were arrested for taking part, sparking an international public outcry.

Now women are sharing videos of burning headscarves with the hashtag #NoHijabDay, a reaction to last week's World Hijab Day event and the crackdown on women in Iran.

Anoud Al Ali, who describes herself as a bisexual, atheist ex-Muslim, posted a video of herself burning a hijab to social media with the caption "this is true happiness".

She said that women are human beings, not sweets or jewels that need to be covered (
Image:
__AnoudAl_/Twitter)
She said that if she refused to wear it at school she would have been marked down in her grades (
Image:
__AnoudAl_/Twitter)
Anoud Al Ali captioned this picture: "This is true happiness" (
Image:
ConfessionsExMu/Twitter)

Ms Al Ali, who grew up in the United Arab Emirates but now lives in France, described the veil as a "symbol of oppression" and said that if she refused to wear it at school she would be given lower grades as punishment.

She wrote: "As promised, I did it on my birthday, it feels so liberating to burn the hijab.

"And I am doing that in solidarity to Iranian women who are protesting against the mandatory hijab and for all the forced girls.

"We are not candies or diamonds to be covered. We're humans."

She took off the hijab in video she posted to social media and burned it (
Image:
__AnoudAl_/Twitter)
Women have shared videos of them burning the hijab to show solidarity with those who are forced to wear the veil (
Image:
__AnoudAl_/Twitter)
Anoud Al Ali said the hijab was a tool of oppression for countless woman and girls forced to wear it (
Image:
__AnoudAl_/Twitter)

Yasmine Mohammed, a blogger at 'Confessions of an Ex-Muslim', also burned the hijab in a video shared on social media.

Yasmine said that as a child, she was beaten for not memorizing the Quran and as a teenager, she was forced into a marriage to a member of Al Qaeda after he was bailed out of prison by Osama bin Laden.

As an adult, she said that she wore a niqab, and lived in a home which was really more like a prison with paper covering the windows, but she managed to leave and now wants to share her experiences to help other women escape opression.

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She shared the video with the hastag #NoHijabDay and wrote: "In solidarity with woman who are forced to wear the hijab."

In the video she removes the hijab, shakes out her long, shiny black hair and smiles as she says "happy No Hijab Day".

She then lights the veil on a gas burner on the ground below her and calmly burns it.

As the veil burns she says with satisfaction: "Yes! Burn baby burn."

Other women (and men) took to Twitter to share pictures of themselves removing their headscarves - although not burning them - as a show of solidarity.

Masih Alinejad, a US-based journalist and activist, started the White Wednesdays campaign in Iran in May 2017.

It encourages women to wear white headscarves or take them off in protest at the rules which restrict a woman's dress and force her to stay covered.

Ms Alinejad previously told the Guardian that Iranian police had arrested or sent to court nearly 3.6 million women because of having "bad hijab" by 2014.

Wearing a veil has been mandatory for all women over the age of 13 in Iran since since the 1979 revolution.

Women can be fined and even jailed if they break the 'modesty rules'.

And the hijab burning protests also have extra resonance in Britain today on the anniversary of a monumentally important day in the fight for equal rights and freedoms.

Exactly 100 years ago some women - those with property and aged 30 or above - were given the vote in Britain after a determined campaign for women's suffrage.