#civil disobedience

[sailing-ever-west]

the trolley problem vs. systemic oppression: a comic.

[vyorei]

FUCK YEAH

[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.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Patti Astor smiling ( on the right) with Abbie Hoffman.1968 Columbia University.

* * * * “It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But a half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

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“During the Vietnam War... every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

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“Free speech is the right to shout 'theater' in a crowded fire.” ― Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Book

[originalleftist]

I'm going to be blunt: If you are in the US, especially the US government, and ESPECIALLY serving in the armed forces, you need to be thinking now about how far you are prepared to "just follow orders", and whether your loyalty is to the United States and its Constitution, or to Donald Trump/whatever SCOTUS says the Constitution is today.

Hopefully it won't come to that, but be thinking about this now, and discussing it (quietly) with any loved ones you trust.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

HARVARD ID’s STUDENTS FOR SILENTLY PRAYING FOR PALESTINE AT DIVINITY SCHOOL

Today, Jewish students at Harvard Divinity School, a nonsectarian school dedicated to the religion scholarship, led a pray-in for Palestine in the library.

Nearly 70 students attended and prayed silently with religious materials in hand and signs against the ongoing genocide and Harvard’s complicity. Admin quickly arrived to ID all participants, including people who were simply holding prayer books without a sign or keffiyeh.

This is the first pray-in during a wave of recent study-ins across the university — students have been undeterred in their solidarity with the Palestinian people despite receiving bans from their own libraries.

[turns-out-its-adhd]

AI exists and there's nothing any of us can do to change that.

If you have concerns about how AI is being/will be used the solution is not to abstain - it's to get involved.

Learn about it, practice utilising AI tools, understand it. Ignorance will not protect you, and putting your fingers in your ears going 'lalalala AI doesn't exist I don't acknowledge it' won't stop it from affecting your life.

The more the general population fears and misunderstands this technology, the less equipped they will be to resist its influence.

[otherbrains]

Unless some kind of miracle with early voting comes into play, it's a sad moment for the world. Not just for the US, but for Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and many other parts of the world.

Cry as long as you need. Eat, drink, find something for your mind and body. Get enough to find the energy to continue living. Conservatives, fascists, theocrats, white nationalists, and billionaires depend on us despairing to the point of suicide. They are not the majority, they just own the majority of wealth and land.

Civil disobedience is our first and best bet for a better future after voting. We must organize locally, nationally, and globally for independence and humanity. We must be united in labor, science, democracy, across ethnic and class backgrounds, to be helping hands for the next person.

As long as we breathe, we can fight!

[greengrizzly]

What started as a quota reform movement has now become a fire, an onrush against the oppressors, a fight to reclaim our voice, our freedom of speech. The autocratic regime has been leeching on our blood for more than decade. Now it's time to reclaim our rights, now it's a fight to restore democracy in Bangladesh. Please keep your eyes on us. Fascists have deployed their dogs and hounds to push us back. Five protestors have already been killed. The students are being cornered, massacred. And we don't have a functioning neutral state to appeal to. The national media, being under the fascists paychecks, are spewing only propaganda and misinformation. We look up to you know, the look. It's as if we're all alone, and neither the movement nor the massacre will stop anytime soon. So, again, please keep an eye on us. All we're asking for is visibility. All eyes on Bangladesh.

[benandstevesposts]

CALIFORNIA POLICE OFFICER IN SPOTLIGHT FOR BODY SLAMMING LADY OUTSIDE GROCERY STORE

A police officer’s violent actions in southern California are being investigated after video footage showed the white cop brutalizing an unarmed Black woman for the apparent offense of recording officers detaining her husband.

The video footage recorded by a witness began by showing the woman holding a cell phone and filming officers handcuffing her husband, who can be heard repeatedly asking “why” he was being detained outside the supermarket in Lancaster.

After two officers struggled to handcuff the husband, one walked directly to the wife. When the camera follows the officer, he’s shown grabbing the wife by the back of her neck before violently flinging her to the ground.

The person recording can be heard yelling for the cop to “get off of her” and not to hit her to no avail.

The cop is next shown kneeling on the wife’s neck, evoking horrific imagery from Derek Chavin’s police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

As with the woman’s husband, the officer struggled to place her in handcuffs even though she wasn’t resisting.

Her husband can be heard in the background pleading for the officer to stop. He also said she has cancer. Neither claim prevented the officer from accosting the woman standing at least 20 feet away from the officers when they were handcuffing her husband.

To view the video, you may visit the original report by visiting the site it appeared here.

UPDATED REPORT ADDED REGARDING AREA WHERE ALLEGED ASSAULT TOOK PLACE

[freetheshit-outofyou]

Civil disobedience is our duty.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE1 Henry David Thoreau

[luminalunii97]

Civil disobedience, act 4: art and symbols

Demonstration art could be one of the most powerful ways to convey your message. Iranians have been making art all over the cities these days.

Painting the city with blood: Putting red color in water bodies around the city. throwing red color at street signs specially those that reads Velayat (supreme leading system), hijab, and Kurdistan. putting red blood on pictures of Khamenei, Ghasem Soleimani, and police or judiciary signs. Coloring the university classes and corridors with red. One art classroom door in Alzahra university read "this classroom is covered in blood". These red colors represent the blood the regime has shed.

Pictures on the walls: Faces of our fallen martyrs. Anti regime pictures. They read: "you kill our love, you are our ISIS" "women life freedom" "women of Iran and Afghanistan against the violence of Talib and mullah" "fuck compulsory hijab" "from 2017 to 2022 this regime would fall like dominos" "ambu-lice (ambulances are being used to move policemen)". A religious figure hide behind religion playing his anti riot forces. On an alley named Azadi (freedom) someone has written "there was so much bravery hidden in this land".

(It's important to know that in Iran, mullahs don't represent religion as much as they represent the regime. For 40 years the turbans have been the heads of political powers. Most of those mullah pictures are directly targeting Khamenei the supreme leader)

Slogans on paper money: these ones say "women life freedom" "queer life freedom" "Baloch life freedom".

Khodanoor Lejei, symbol of the islamic republic cruelty: The bloody Friday in Zahedan was one of the darkest spots in Islamic republic brutal history. Opening fire on a crowd of praying Muslims before they even start protesting. Killing about 100 people of Baloch. But one picture stood out and stood as the face of inhumanity of the regime. Khodanoor Lejei was one of the victims of bloody Friday in Zahedan. An old picture of him went viral after his death. He was arrested a couple of months prior to Mahsa Amini murder and was treated with no dignity. Bound to a pole. water in front of his thirsty body but out of his reach. So in universities, sport games, streets and alleys people have been posing Khodanoor in bound to protest the cruelty. In the last two pictures, the signs read "political" (سیاسی) and "justice" (عدالت)!

Students sing revolution anthems. Artists make digital arts. Musicians make revolution songs. People dance and the security forces attack and arrest them.

There have been balloons flying over the cities with banners containing slogans on them. There have been banners on footbridges situated so that drivers would see them. People also have been writing slogans on billboards especially those that promote regime propaganda.

Azad university art students gathered in their campus, painted their palms red and raised their hands to the sky.

Meanwhile the regime forces broke into dormitories and stole students.

Some universities including mine design their campus trees and buildings with names of the murdered protesters or captured students and other revolution symbols (red tulip represents martyrs in Persian literature). The uni authorities take them down but the art students do it again.

After Kian Pirfalak, all over the country you could find paper boats and rainbows. Kian was a 10 year old boy who was murdered by the regime. There's a video of him starting with "in the name of the god of the rainbow" and continuing to explain his crafted boat. He wanted to become an engineer. Now paper boats are banned in universities.

One of the murdered protesters, Hamidreza Rouhi, loved riding motorcycles. He had a video online of him on a motorbike lip syncing to a song and pointing to the camera. A group of motorbike riders in Tehran, 7 day after his murder, gathered in front of his house, their motorbikes lined nearby, with pictures of him on each bike.

And in a recent symbolic act, a woman walked around Tehran streets as The Handmaid's Tale cosplayer. Very on point.

Don't think for a second that these civil ways of protesting are safe or easy. People have been arrested or shot in the head doing these.

People are capable of beauties but the regime can only make ugliness. That's the summary of this revolution.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

That is some straight up fuckin' DEVILRY right there.

Mrs. Desmond was fined for defrauding the Federal Government of one cent, the difference in the Amusement tax on an upstairs ticket of two cents and a downstairs ticket of three cents.

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.” — Henry David Thoreau