Iran has been tripped up by the women.
The eruption of nationwide protests in Iran following the death in police custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman detained for allegedly failing to adhere to hijab (headscarf) rules is the most serious challenge Iran’s leadership has faced in years.
Oddly enough women don’t like being bullied and oppressed and muffled in yards of cloth.
Civil liberties groups continually spotlight the suppression of women in Iran, an entire part of society who have been the biggest losers of the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Half of society – the half without which there won’t be any more Iranians. (Men are required for that too, but in a pinch you can get by with far fewer of them.)
Iranian women were forced to wear hijab (headscarf) soon after the revolution and have lost many of their rights, including right to travel, right to work and right to child custody over the age of seven. There was little objection to these changes from men at the time.
“The fact that many men are joining the protests shows that the society has shifted to more progressive demands,” says Mehrdad Darvishpour, an Iranian sociologist based in Sweden.
The main slogan of protesters is “Woman, Life, Freedom”, a call for equality and a stance against religious fundamentalism.
The real problem is theocracy. Get the goddam religion (whatever religion it is) out of government. Woman, Life, Freedom, Secularism.
Comments
18 responses to “Serious challenge”
It’s good to know that there’s somewhere that knows the real meaning of the phrase Women’s March.
The empire is striking back.
And let’s throw in some anti-semitism for good measure:
The Koran can’t be offended. It’s just a book, it has no feelings. And even if it did, offending those feelings is not a crime, capital or otherwise.
In decent countries, yes, but in theocracies like Iran, it most definitely is a capital crime.
It’s heartwarming to see so many trans women around the world standing with their Iranian Cisters.
It is always worth remembering that until 1953, Iran was a democracy led by PM Mohammad Mosaddegh. Then his regime was terminated by a joint British-American (CIA-MI6) coup on behalf of western oil interests, which installed the viciously repressive and anti-democratic Pahlevi Dynasty in its place; overthrown in turn and replaced not by a democracy, but by the possibly nuclear-armed theocracy still in power today.
Unfortunately, time only moves forwards in this universe, though I venture to add that many western politicians would today wish they could roll it back at least in Iran’s case. Still, they can always claim that to those now departed decision-makers of 1953, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh
Rev,
I realize that Iran and other countries have outlawed insulting the Koran and Islam, but I still maintain it’s not a crime.
WaM, we agree, but must also accept the reality these women live under. They are risking death, not torn fingernails or hurt feelings.
Blasphemy is still a crime in Australia and New Zealand, although a long time since the last prosecution and the penalty is not death.
Omar, Iran is but one of many countries that were destroyed by the “Great Powers” playing their games like humans were pawns on a chessboard.
Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, South America, Africa, Korea, Indo China and Caribbean countries, have all paid a high price.
Rev,
I’m not sure I understand your point. Where did I minimize the risk these women are facing? I expressed my opinion about the law; I didn’t say anything to suggest that they are not in grave danger because of the potential state response to their actions.
I guess the point I was trying to make is that you and I agree blasphemy is not a crime, but that is not the reality for Iranian women.
I was not insinuating you were minimizing their risk, but if I was unclear, I apologise. I think we both agree that these women are incredibly brave and deserve more support from their menfolk.
Got it, thanks.
Which is one reason hunters are usually permitted more does than bucks. It’s more effective population control.
It’s disheartening to see such a hateful attack on hijab-wearing identities by white feminist Karens and their allies on the far Right. If you strip away the pseudo-scientific drivel about “biological sexes” (a recent Western invention inextricably linked to cultural imperialism and white supremacy), this violent rhetoric against the hijab-wearing community is nothing less than a call for genocide of Iranian women. In an Iranian cultural context “womanhood” is by definition inextricably linked to hijab-wearing, hence envisioning a world without hijab-wearers amounts to envisioning a world without women, exactly the way Hitler envisioned a world without Jews!
/S
Bjarte @#12:
.
So, in their worldview, there must have been no women before hijabs.!… ???? So Adam must have invented the first hijab; after Eve got herself beguiled by that damned talking snake. That first hijab was put together probably out of branches; thus turning Eve into a walking, talking bush; a tad more than is described in the Book of Genesis. After the leaves dried out and a hot day came along, she might well have caught fire. Yet Moses makes no mention of any fire extinguishers, or even buckets of water to throw over her in an emergency.
Omar, that gives a whole new meaning to Moses speaking to a burning bush.
Nullius @ 11 – It’s why so many things. It’s why women are so policed and hidden and punished, for one.
A picture to break your heart:
https://climateandeconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/iran-econ-300×176.png
Mike B that is heartbreaking. As are all the photographs I’ve seen of what the country was like for women in the seventies, before the theocratic takeover. I have family (by marriage) from Iran, and the stories are truly tragic. Every time there’s a coup, the situation gets worse for everyone except those who put themselves in power.
As my namesake memorably said: “The moving finger writes; and, having writ, / Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit / Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, / Nor all thy tears erase a word of it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/24/protests-spread-in-iran-as-president-raisi-vows-to-crack-down