#Iran protests

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

If you ever wondered if the pro-Palestine movement was a trend, look up the protests yesterday against the Taliban.

Oh wait, there were no protests.

The Taliban has essentially outlawed women’s existence. You cannot be heard at all, nor can any part of your skin be seen. This is actually more strict than Iran, where we saw the mass protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.

Mahsa Amini went viral on social media, so there were some protests for that. However, most protests overseas (not in Iran) had ended by spring of 2023. They didn’t end due to policy change in Iran. Women are still being persecuted there. It’s just no longer trendy to protest the Iranian government, even while the American government is helping fund the Ayatollah (and the Taliban, by the way).

We even saw the disqualification of an Olympic athlete for wearing a cape that said “Free Afghan Women”. I was hoping the movement might get started after that. I know the whole world saw her - surely this will be the start. How wrong I was.

It seems people only care when something goes viral on social media. Protests for change are only for viral movements.

[luminalunii97]

Today marks one year anniversary of 2022 Iranian uprising against the oppressive Islamic Republic regime. An uprising that started with the brutal murder of a young kurd woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, for "inappropriate hijab".

For the past couple of weeks, the regime has prepared their forces to beat down any new movement immediately. The streets of Tehran and many other cities are lined with anti riot forces and police cars. In Saqez, the home city of Amini family, they've stationed the army around the city to massacre people in case they try to start another wave of protest. Mahsa's father has been arrested alongside some family members of other last year uprising martyrs.

There has been small protesting gatherings in Iran in the last two days, there has already been some arrests and violent crackdowns on protesters. I hear people chanting from my neighborhood homes. The government would commit as many bloodbaths as it takes to secure their position, but you can't beat people into obedience when they hate you from the bottom of their hearts.

Woman life freedom

[crownspeaksblog]

I sometimes think about men have almost the same rights, body autonomy, freedom in every country while for women life looks so different from country to country or at least from region to region.

In some countries you're forced to cover your head, in others you're prohibited from covering your head and in other countries you can wear/not wear what you want. You can have an abortion in that country but not this one. You can get education, degrees and have paying jobs in most countries but not in others. You can go to a doctor if you need to but there you can't because women aren't allowed to become doctors and women aren't allowed to see a male doctor..

I sometimes think about how shitty the country i live in is but then i think well at least i can get an education and go to a doctor.. i shouldn't have to be grateful for those things..

[glitzy-dynamite]

[punkboyjack]

As an Iranian person

Nothing in my life is more shameful and pitiful and embarrassing than seeing people who support the corrupt government of my country without knowing the slightest thing

Just go search (mahsa amini) or something

So that you might be a little ashamed of your behavior and support of an dictator

[gallifreyriver]

Reminder that Zuckerberg actively lobbied with Republican PR firms to make TikTok illegal because he couldn't compete with it.

Reminder that for all its faults TikTok has brought tons of awareness to important issues that barely got any coverage until they blew up on TikTok, and more that still barely got any mainstream coverage even after they did.

Reminder that TikTok has become the largest and easiest place for people to come together and organize, and has 150 million active users in the US.

Reminder that congress, especially conservatives, stand to gain a lot by banning it, because it means less people will hear about all the problematic (fascist) shit they're trying to pass, such as the 300+ anti-trans bills, the bills seeking to make abortion a felony punishable by death, or how they're trying to remove the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). They also get to 'look tough' against China.

Reminder that claims of concerns over data privacy are bullshit, because China could literally just buy our data if they wanted it. Tech companies just like and including Facebook collect and sell our data all the time. China wouldn't need to build an app to get it.

Reminder that banning TikTok sets a precedent that Congress could come for literally any other social media they deem 'a threat' and ban that too. Yes, even your personal favorite one.

Reminder that we should care about this and instead of saying "Good Riddance TikTok!" we should be actively trying to stop this violation of free speech and stop handing more power to fascists just because we personally don't like a thing or think it's cringe. This is bigger than your personal tastes.

Please sign this letter from the ACLU to your members of Congress and urge them to listen. There's also a hearing this Thursday on March 23rd at 10am EST in DC where the TikTok CEO will be testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing will be open to the public and will also be live streamed online.

I don't care if you hate TikTok or think it's "cringe." If you all actually hate Facebook and fascists as much as you say you do, then you won't stand for letting them win this fight to ban it.

[thecorvidforest]

today is the 1 year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s Morality Police. it sparked massive protests by Iranian citizens, largely women, seeking rights, justice, and freedom.

the movement is not over. progress is being made, but it has been brutal. many have been jailed, tortured, assaulted, and killed. please continue supporting Iranian citizens and uplifting their message.

[azural83]

Did everyone just collectively forget that the iran is an islamist dictatorship

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

New Rule: Gender Apartheid | Real Time with Bill Maher

And finally, New Rule: if you're out protesting for a couple of hours wearing this...

... you have to go all the way and spend an afternoon running errands wearing one of these.

You can't side with the people who ruthlessly oppress women without at least getting a taste of what you're supporting.

Well, now that summer is here and the Hamas-backing college protesters have dispersed back to their summer internships at Goldman Sachs, I thought it might be a good time to say this: I actually admire your youthful idealism, and our world would be poorer without it. Much like your parents who just wasted 300 grand on that ignorance factory you call a college.

Not that I think it's your fault, being this poorly educated and morally confused. That takes a village. Shitty schools, overindulgent parents, social media, that priest who rubbed lotion on you.

But three cheers to you for at least having the impulse to seek a cause in something bigger than yourself. It's just that the one you picked, you missed the boat by a fucking mile.

But here's the good news. You want a cause? Cuz I totally got one for you. Apartheid. Yeah, apartheid, the thing you've been shouting about with Israel for months. Never mind that Israeli Arabs are actually full citizens. You learned that word from a 2 Chainz song and discovered that protesting South Africa's apartheid in the 80s was a righteous cause, and so it was. To this day, when celebrities are asked, who is the person they most admire, one name is always the safest choice.

So, naturally, when you heard that Israel was an apartheid state it gave you such a boner you literally pitched a tent.

You knew how wrong it was when tens of millions of South Africans had been treated like second class citizens just because of their race.

But here's the thing. Today, right now, hundreds of millions of women are treated worse than second class citizens. When you mandate that one category of human beings don't even have the right to show their face, that's apartheid. And it goes on in a lot of countries.

For the last couple years, women in Iran have been saying, "take this hijab and shove it." Because in 2022, a young woman named Mahsa Amini was arrested for wearing her mandatory hijab incorrectly and then died in police custody. And now security forces have killed over 500 people protesting her death and this obvious human rights violation. How about defunding those police?

Amnesty International says that, "Iranian authorities are waging a war on women that subjects them to constant surveillance beatings sexual violence and detention." What P. Diddy calls a hotel stay.

In Iran, MeToo isn't a movement, it's what a woman says when another woman says, my life sucks.

Yasmine Muhammad is a human rights activist who got married off to a Muslim man with fundamentalist views about women not exactly uncommon in the Muslim world. He forced her to wear the niqab all the time, including once beating her because she took her hijab off at home, because the apartment had a window through which people might see in. And this was in Vancouver.

Here's what Yasmine said about veiling.

"It just suppresses your humanity entirely. It's like a portable sensory deprivation chamber and you are no longer connected to humanity. You can't see properly. You can't hear properly. You can't speak properly. People can't see you. You can only see them. Just little things. Passing people on the street and just making eye contact and smiling, that's gone. You're no longer part of this world, and so you very quickly just shrivel up into nothing under there."

And that's my answer when someone says "Islamophobe."

Really, feminists? Come on, there's got to be a happy medium between a husband making his wife wear this, and a husband making his wife wear this.

I know 1619 was bad, but this is happening right now, right under your nose rings. And it's not just the clothes. 15 countries in the Middle East, including Gaza, have laws that require women to obey their husbands. Laws. Not just Harrison Butker's opinion.

And those societies also have guardianship laws, which means a woman needs permission from her husband to work, to travel, to leave the house, to go to school, to get medical attention. Nothing?

Honor killings, where women are murdered by their own fathers and-or brothers happen so frequently they can't even have an accurate account of how many.

In 59 countries, there are no laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, and many have no laws against domestic violence or spousal rape. 20 countries have marry-your-rapist laws. Multiple societies have laws about what jobs women can and can't do. Make a Barbie movie about that. 30 countries practice female genital mutilation, and 650 million women alive today were married as children.

Kids, if you really want to change the world and not just tie up Monday morning traffic, this is the apartheid that desperately needs your attention. Gender apartheid. This is what should be the social justice issue of your time. How about, from the river to the sea, every woman shall be free?

But in reality, it's not an issue at all. For one reason: the people who are doing it aren't white. I hate to have to be the one to break it to you kids, but non-white people can do bad things too. Now, white on black racism certainly has been of one of history's most horrific scourges. But also, it's true that in today's world being non-white means you can get away with murder.

So good on you kids for following your instinct to protest social injustice. Just remember, when it comes to finding a cause, pulling your head out of your ass is an important rite of passage.

==

They won't do it not just because it's Intersectionally inconvenient, but also because it would require admitting that, as citizens of first world countries and students of Ivy League universities, not only do they not live in a "patriarchy," but they're some of the freest, most privileged, most self-determining people who have ever lived in the world at any time, ever.

And, having spent decades crafting a narrative of being long-suffering and "oppressed," they'd have to surrender the significant social, political and economic capital that narrative affords, by fighting for women in Iran, Gaza, Afghanistan and other countries to have the same rights and privileges they take for granted. And regularly spit on.

[luminalunii97]

saying F U to the regime again and again: a quick update on women vs IR regime

Famous Iranian actresses have been appearing in public without a mandatory hijab. This has been happening since the beginning of the protests. Last month, Kiumars Pourahmad, a well known Iranian screenwriter and director, committed suicide. He had a history of criticizing the regime's political decisions. At his funeral, some of the famous actresses attended without mandatory hijab.

You can see Fateme Motamedarya, Katayoun Riyahi, and Golab Adineh in these pictures from the funeral. Ms. Riyahi was one of the first celebrities who took her hijab off at the start of the Jina (Mahsa) Amini protest and for that she's been the target of IRGC harassment and has been to court.

Last week, in the ceremony of screening of the final episode of Lion's Skin (a persian crime show), actress Pantea Bahram participated without hijab. The manager of Tehran’s Lotus Cinema, where the ceremony was held, was fired for letting her attend without hijab.

Other than prosecution, the regime has blocked these celebrities' bank accounts. Basij and IRGC members have also attacked and harassed these women online and in real life.

Students on university campuses take off their hijabs. There's an installed version of morality police in universities that monitor students' styles. Female students must wear "appropriate" hijab and male students must wear "manly" clothes (one of my guy friends once was asked to go back home and change his shoes because they were red casual loafers. Apparently that's gay!). When you enroll in Iranian universities, the first thing you do is to go to the security office and sign an agreement that says you promise to follow the Islamic dress code. There are posters all over the campus that says things like "hijab is security" "respect the islamic hijab" and "not wearing appropriate hijab (tight short clothes, too much hair, makeup, etc) would result in legal action". So not wearing hijab on campus, where a lot of security cameras are installed and it's easy to identify you, is a big deal.

The regime's response to students taking off their hijabs is sending threatening messages to students' phones and increasing the security people. At the entrance of Universities, these security forces check people's clothes and if it's not proper they won't let you in. Some of the students wear the hijab at the entrance and take it off after they're in. They have warned our professors to not let non hijabi students sit in classes too.

One of my favorite trends in Iran now is when guys wear our hijab. These pictures are from universities. Guys wearing hijab make the security mad. This is a great act of solidarity with women against the obligatory hijab.

Some men have been doing either this or wearing shorts in public. The former is to ridicule the obligatory dress code and the latter is because wearing shorts in public is forbidden for guys too.

And women not wearing hijab in general. Though hijab is not our only issue, we want a whole new political system, one that is not theocratic or terroristic, hijab is something the regime won't back down from because it's one of their strongest oppressing tools. If they let us win the fight against obligatory hijab, I quote from a regime head, "people keep demanding more changes"!

So to put people against people to enforce the hijab law again, the regime has closed down many businesses (hotels, cafes, malls, bookstores, etc) for welcoming non hijabi female costumers. They have also warned taxi and bus drivers to not let non hijabi women in their vehicles.

Although not everyone is disobeying the hijab law (some believe in hijab, some don't want to pay the price), the number of women who take the risk and don't wear hijab in Tehran and many other cities is high enough that you feel encouraged to keep doing it.

[queerism1969]

Women in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan are facing significant challenges in their fight for survival and equality, yet some self-identified feminists, known as TERFs, do not acknowledge or support their struggle and revolution.

[secular-jew]

One day, may Iranian women be as free as Israeli women.

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

@staff is this enough for you to finally put Iran under "Things we care about"?

12 Iranian schools have reported suspected mass poisonings and about 1200 girls have been hospitalized for suspected poisonings.

-fae

[punkboyjack]

We didn't almost died trying to free our country from dictator so that now you can take his side and cheer for the fascist regime who hasn't stopped fucking with us for 40_50 years

[bellamonde]

AMAZING NEWS!!!

At its 35th special session, the UN Human Rights Council voted to create a new fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022.

Proof that our activism has worked. Let’s keep the pressure on and hold the Islamic Republic accountable for crimes against humanity. 

[lepidoptera-art]

~Comforts~ This piece was inspired by an Iranian-American friend in the light of the protests in Iran. While the protesting in general is important to follow, it is also important to remember the intimately human aspects of a culture that are rarely captured by the news at large. I asked her what fond memories she had of her country that stood out in her mind. She said: Persian rugs, saffron, and drinking tea out of tiny glasses <3 Woman, Life, Freedom!