You can say many things about totalitarian and autocratic regimes. Brutal. Stupid. Selfish. Corrupt. Obdurate. The Iranian regime is all of these things, but it stands out in a class of its own for one particular vice. Spitefulness. Real, playground- level childish viciousness in its treatment of women. And in particular the rigid enforcement of the Hijab, that piece of cloth which must cover the whole of the head and face, regardless of whether they believe in the tenets of Islam or not.
Now it seems that the women of Iran are starting to fight back. According to the BBC [1], there have now been five successive days of unrest. The cost is enormous; it always is when armed(male) police confront and repress unarmed(female) protestors. It’s not as if these brave girls want to ban the hijab. All they ask is to make the same choice about their dress as grown-up women do anywhere. We say: if Hijabs are so good, why don’t the police wear them? The answer “because they’re men” won’t wash, because real men don’t go round beating up women and shooting them.
As the murders continue, so the brave women of Iran will need help. Fortunately, there are several western based centres of resistance which can keep the flame of freedom alive, safe from Khamenei’s secret police. One such we are linking to here is called my stealthy freedom [2] We’ll quote their mission statement here
MY Stealthy Freedom is an independent campaign by Iranian women. Through acts of peaceful civil disobedience, the campaign highlights and pushes back against discriminatory gender laws within Iran.
Using cross-cultural dialogue to strengthen the voices of Iranian women, My Stealthy Freedom Organization is an independent nonprofit public foundation, with no political affiliation, dedicated to promoting the actions of women struggling for their rights in Iran.
We hope you’ll take time out to visit their website. Because there you will learn what both courage and progress are.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-62967381
[2] https://www.mystealthyfreedom.org/
#hijab #islam #mystealthyfreedom #ayatollah khamenei #womens rights #freedom #choice
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