August 19, 2026
Most people know that a hijab is a head covering worn by Muslim women. Everyone knows that marijuana is a controlled substance under federal law.
It has been widely reported that Iran has sentenced an Iranian singer to 74 lashes for performing a YouTube concert in December of 2004 without a wearing a hijab. Parastoo Ahmadi and her crew were also sentenced to a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban on performing.
Rightly so, Americans view this as evidence of Iran's oppressive government and express amazement at the role that religion plays in Iran's government.
Yet, many Americans support their government's oppression of marijuana users and express amazement that the federal government has allowed the states to legalize marijuana, albeit in limited ways.
The medical use of marijuana is legal in 41 states and Puerto Rico, while the recreational use of marijuana is legal in 24 states. Both are legal in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Although the federal government recently reclassified marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule III controlled substance, using, possessing, manufacturing, dispensing, and distributing marijuana without government approval is still a federal crime. The rescheduling applies only to "FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana" and "marijuana products regulated under a qualifying state medical marijuana program." Recreational marijuana is not included, and its use can result in fines and/or imprisonment.
It is just as ridiculous and tyrannical for a government to prosecute one of its citizens for not wearing a hijab as it is for a government to prosecute one of its citizens for possessing marijuana.
This past Fourth of July, when Americans celebrated the nation's 250th anniversary, they sang the national anthem and cheered after the phrase "the land of the free." They sang "America," with its mention of "Sweet land of liberty," "land of the noble free," and the "ring" of freedom, "sweet freedom's song," and "freedom's holy light." They sang along with Lee Greenwood's song "God Bless the U.S.A.," and especially the beginning of the chorus that says, "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free."
But in a free society, no one would ever be arrested, fined, or imprisoned for possessing a plant the government doesn't approve of.
Why is it that so many Americans think that if a man comes home from work on a Friday night and drinks a 12-pack of beer or a fifth of whiskey and passes out drunk and does not wake up until noon on Saturday that the man wasted his health, time, and money, but if a man comes home from work on a Friday night and smokes some marijuana and passes out stoned and does not wake up until noon on Saturday that he should be locked in a cage?
This attitude is why most Americans merely yawn when the Trump administration attacks boats in international waters suspected of transporting drugs and murders their "narco-terrorist" operators.
The reaction of Americans to marijuana laws in the United States should be the same as their reaction to hijab laws in Iran: outrage.