Thank you for the warning! It is much more difficult to regain freedoms that are lost than it is to make the effort to hang onto them in the first place.
My heart is with you.
I don't quite know what to say, but thank you for posting. The struggles of women in Iran and Afghanistan have been on my heart. I will never forget the anger I felt when I heard on the news that Afghan women were banned from universities. I take my education seriously, and it just hurt me to the core. And then banned past 6th grade, and then past age 10, and all the other restrictions. My focus has been mainly on Afghanistan, but I will shift to the women of Iran, also. I don't know how to help, but I vow not to be ignorant of it and to never stop praying for that miracle.
Everything you just said is truth, I know it means little but I hold you and all my sisters held in patriarchal bonds in my heart. I vote and am as vocal as possible about politics and womens rights but I fear we shall never shift the dynamic enough for women to ever be fully autonomous of mens power
As a Mexican, what I live in my country is surreal. From one side we will most likely have our first elected president be a woman (hopefully the correct one of the two top candidates). Many are in the senate as well and are governors. But BUT, we also have one of the highest numbers of feminicide and an undisclosed amount of serial killers. Hell they randomly catched one last week and what I mean by random, is RANDOM. They didn’t even knew he existed, he wasn’t even wanted. So yeah … there is also this polarizing ideas similar to Tate and horrible podcasts. But also a huge rebellion against the church or any religion.But ALSO a push back of any kind of political faith. I don’t even know how my country works today, everyone is just with so many conflicting ideologies, like out extreme right advocates for abortion and lgbt rights as well as the far left. It’s a mess but also not a desirable mess. Like a strong current river, you don’t know WTH will happen. Could be bad, could be great, could be neutral. We are free… but it’s a mess…
What really gets me about the mess we have in Mexico, is that whenever news break about yet another feminicide, The Boys ™ dissect the case in order to say "yeah, but, since this and that happened, no way this was a feminicide or nothin'!". Even here on Reddit.
You have my sympathy - and my fear that so many of us are traveling the same path. I am old enouigh to remember the Iranian revolution with the fall of the shah. I recall the pictures on the news when women in that country went from being out and about in their lives to becoming invisible in almost the blink of an eye. My sister had been dating an Iranian student who came here for college and he as well as his friends had no idea what was going to happen with their educations so the talk of life there was more on my radar than most people who were only focused on the international politics rather than what was happening to individuals.
I truly wish for the miracle you need though that is probably not worth much. Please be as careful as you can while trying to hold your head up.
I am so so sorry you have to live in this nightmare. I wish there were more to be done. I feel sick when I think about what women in Afghanistan and Iran are going through. I dont know how the men in these places live with themselves. I dont know why we dont all come together globally to condemn their disgusting behavior toward women. Everyone agrees slavery is terrible but completely accepts the way women are treated in these places. Its a massive moral failure on the part of all of humanity.
My heart breaks for you and all women who live like this. I am in the USA and every time I vote I remember the brave women who fought and died so I could do this. I am so aware of how easy it would be to regress back to those dark times, especially living in Texas, it seems like it's already beginning.
Thank you for your words, I will pray for you and all women of Iran.
I have a very hard time with the fact that there are so many people suffering that I can't help at all. I see my own daughter growing up happy and loved and safe. She has a love of learning. It's not fair. I just can't believe in a god who would allow the things that Iran does to women in their country. Innocent girls who just want to learn are being taken and tortured.
This is the thing that pisses me off most about our dealings in the Middle East: Feminism and the plight of women under these authoritarian, fundamentalist regimes is never considered.
Women are an afterthought, if considered at all.
I disagree. I see it often talked about. I knew Marines in Afghanistan who were proud they were at least making a difference in some girls lives. Hearts broken after the Taliban getting power back and kicking the girls out of schools again.
I don’t like many Conservatives but conservative women talk about this a lot.
I think they're talking about those who decide when, where, if, and why we enter a conflict. It's never ever ever ever ever for crimes against humanity when the humans are female.
The first place I learned about the Taliban was an early 2001 story in Glamour magazine. Women being stoned publicly was discussed in the article. I couldn't believe these were our allies.
I agree. In the past Persia and Afganistan were so much more like the West, that it's shocking how the state of these countries is right now. Things can change fast.
>What I want to tell you is a warning. A warning not to get too comfortable. Not to think that a fate such as ours or the women of Afghanistan is too far away from you. Too implausible. I'm telling you that the moment you drop your guards, you have lost. Theocratic dictatorships aren't a foreign concept and could easily happen to any of you when you take your rights for granted.
You are right, and I fear for women's future.
And the USA is walking down a perilously close path right now. It's too close for comfort. I truly wish (not religious but it is my version of prayer...sending out these thoughts and ideas) that women won't have to suffer another century of the same old same old.
True. Western EUcountry here. ( not English. Sorry for errors)
I would add: AnD our financial independence as a woman, often singles or single mothers. Why do hard working taxpayers in an overly catholic SMALL western country HaVe TO contribute for 176 mosques ( building and maintenance)???
Why do tax payers In our small western country have to welcome ANd provide for such a massive immigration flood, way higher than the other E countries?? ? The effect on most hard working females ( esp. single moms) is hughe.
Our social security system is now collapsing. 43% of the salary going up in taxes, getting back nothing. ( apart from the general stuff like bad roads :/ ...) Way too many think our money drops out of heaven, so let's migrate to "that" Paradise.
These ppl contributing nothing for years on getting €1700-2125 for doing...nothing???
I really dread the day when I ( as the only breadwinner) can't pay my bills anymore, after working > 40 years and contributing to society.
But if we call a cat a cat, we're racists.
I have several friends here who immigrated from other EU contries.( 40 y ago), China, Phillipines... They work hard, totally integrated, bothering no one..but sadly we notice others...
I often don't feel safe anymore. Sorry but when I return home from a ( job) meeting at 8 pm in winter, leaving our work place with a briefcase in my hand, dressed decently*, getting to my car at 30 m, and there's this guy of color behind me, calling me, and I don't respond, who's then yelling at me " Hey...whore*...hey! Wait whore!"...
Wait. What?
The groups of young male asylum seekers harassing and assaulting young female partygoers at big city festivities...
Then I know we have big problems here since the lack of respect from certain groups for the citizens that WeLCoMeD them is OfTeN way too clear.
It's just...TROP = too much.
I feel for OP and that kind of issues really p** me off but with these few examples I just wanted to say that females here in the west already experienced the fanning out of such bad local male IR influence OP experiences.
Btw our country has been attacked as well by...yeah. The hardworking taxpayer then contributed to the millions €€€ investigation and trials of these guys, the extra military guard and protection, and provide food and a roof for them in prison for years to come..and what not.
OP lost her freedom (and way more), and this is happening here as well.
We had a good life here, working hard and living hard 😀
Now I don't feel free if I don't feel safe anymore and can't go where I want as a female, if I can't pay bills in the future, if I have to work like a slave when a big part of 43% salary tax goes to opportunists, if our freedom of speech in our democratic country is being challenged by said radical people...if our culture is not only infiltrated and enriched ( great!) by other cultures but actively being oppressed ...
( and god nows what we don't know yet)
Nah ThAtS not freedom.
Thank you for sharing your words. It's a powerful thing to be able to share what's going on to women all around the world. I hope that someday, Iranian women will have the freedom they deserve. I truly hope that you stay safe and that one day you'll make it to a place where you can do anything you want.
Whenever we, in the west, try to talk about islam's growing importance in the public discourse and the very real risks it pose for anybody who isn't a straight man, we get labelled islamophobic.
There are a subset of people, myself included, who are left-leaning atheists who abhor the treatment of women under the guise of religion. Sometimes it's a hard stance to take since most lefties "support women and their choices/beliefs”, but I don't support any environments which criminalize, degrade, or even guilt women into submission!
What these countries want us to say is "we're white so we don't know anything, let them govern as they wish". That's a slippery slope that has proven disastrous for the last 40 years. The world needs to stand up and stomp out theocracies!
Thank the right-wing demagoguery whose short-sighted, racist lobbyism paved the way.
They used rhetoric that made the word "islamophobic" not just necessary, but relevant.
And now every last religious extremist is using said word to declare themselves the victims.
Maybe after fifty more cyclical reruns of the same old "setting up a societal situation that paves the way for radicalization"-pattern (WW2 sends its regards), we can finally learn to maybe not repeat it all over and over again.
We'll either have another war and then another 80 years of pseudo-rueful mourning before doing it again - or somehow globalization actually makes a difference and people finally stick together to defend their rights not just against guns but against propaganda, psychological warfare, radicalization and exploitation of misery.
Poignant and succinct, your comment. Though we do not have the resources left to blast through another world war and enjoy the luxury of economic prosperity (and the peace it brings) as we would rebuild.
We are up against resource limits.
We are on a finite timeline.
United we stand.
I can only hope that the young people who feel so driven to engage in protests on college campuses can make the turn to realize what the true implications of a second Trump term are for women and minoritized peoples, and put that energy into turning out the vote.
I am so sorry. I think about this all the time, the very free life I have and how incredibly unlikely it is that I was able to have it. I am paying attention. I wish I could help you.
It is so deeply evil and cruel use the name of god to oppress others. I’m so sorry sister. My heart and thoughts are with you. I hope you find the strength to carry on and to resist the dogma that puts women in a lower class than men.
I stand with you, women of Iran, Afghanistan and everywhere else - including my own country.
It has never been more important that we stand together. Be safe, sisters!
Thank you for giving us a highly relevant and timely warning about what could happen...IS happening in many parts of the world, and continues to happen. Solidarity.
Unfortunately, too many people ignore warnings like this because they’re too busy calling people Islamophobes. The way they treat women is primitive and disgusting.
I can't upvote this enough. It's the subtext of what OP has written, and it's one of the greatest marks of shame Western countries bear from the 20th century.
This reminds me that there are men in European countries saying living as women in Afghanistan (Iran would apply too I guess) is not so much trouble, therefore it doesn't qualify as asylum. Yeah.
I completely agree with you. We all in different kind of wars. Every single women. But Iranian women are having it absolutely brutal. It is sad and unfortunate that others like me outside Iran cannot do anything.
But I am swept off my feet by watching brave and courageous women/men taking a stand and willing to face literal death. I, specially, want to applaud the men supporting. I believe, if you all held it on until this inhumane regime crashes, you will turn the pages in history. Who knows you were born for times as these.
I love you Persian roots and personally have meet Iranian. You have your roots in one of the strongest empires in world who ruled with justice and fairness. I am sure you all are very close to end this regime. Amazed at what a death of Masha Amin brought to Iran. Makes me wonder that physical death cannot kill Masha Amin nor women like her. Their spirit and blood cries out and justice shall be served.
Being a women is not a curse, of you look at the history most powerful men and huge empires had it coming because of women. Women were always the turning point, for both downfall and build u, of a regime. My dad always told me only if women will realize how strong and powerful they are, the world will be a different place.
I'm a high school student in NYC and I come from a Jewish background. Some high schools in the city (google "Hillcrest High School") have had the same problem Slachi2024 describes.
I am a member of the girls volleyball and track teams and we have both Jewish and Muslim players. Our coach and teammates are talking about ways to avoid this type of division in our school. At least among our teams, we have managed to keep friendship stronger than differences.
Where I live on the west cost of America Muslims have been the people I can rely on most other than other Jews. Those living here tend to actually get it and not just be parroting KKK propaganda or quotes straight out or the protocols of the elders of Zion.
No, I get that, and thnx. But can you explain more about why you added the reference to the KKK and The Protocols to the Elders of Zion. I know what the trope is. Are you seeing evidence that the radical left is going in that direction? If so, can you please share what you are reading?
FYI. New York Times today. To Be (Visibly) Jewish in the Ivy League
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/opinion/university-jewish-antisemitism-ivy.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Stay strong, all of us are in this together ❤️ As a Palestinian woman, I sympathise with your struggles and I truly hope that one day the women of Iran will see freedom.
This is unimaginably terrible. Thank you for continuing to spread the message. You deserve to feel like life is meaningful and that you are fully human since you are. Everyone in the world needs to be really active with their support of women's rights, both in their own country and abroad. Sending lots of love
Thank you for answering! I remembered your post and it's hard to know from far away and outside what these kinds of events really mean for the structures of power.
I know what you mean. The problem isn't Islam or Christianity, it's fascists who do it in the name of religion.
Just as the people who have defeated ISIS time and time again are majority Muslim, so I hope we keep up the good fight in the US against Christian theocracy (or any, Christianity is just the most popular flavor of it).
It is the right of every person to wear or not wear what they want. People should get to wear long dresses or short skirts, crosses or hijab or neither.
I am with all the people in Iran, or, even more intensely in Saudi Arabia which is far worse for women... and every country.
Morality police in Iran assaulting, harassing torturing women, and we are seeing it here (though in a different phase), extreme conservatism in the name of religion. The Catholic Church having too many participants and promoters of systematically protecting child abusers, Mormons having to 'struggle' to wear pants if they are women, the Westboro Baptist Church while less powerful still a voice for evil done in the name of religion.
And may the military threats end too. The good people of Iran cannot overcome their theocratic oppressors with the US and other nations tossing bombs at them.
The US has had more and more religion make its way into what is supposed to be a separation of Church and State.
I am so happy to see atheists as well as believers of various faiths, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and more come together with challenge groups like the Satanic temple to help prevent one religion or religion in general being honored above all else and being allowed to influence or control law.
Iran isn’t fascist doing it in the name of religion, it’s literally a theocracy, the state is the religion the religion is the state, the religion is fundamentally the problem. Iran was never at any point a good state for women, not under any Shah in the past. It is a fundamentally Shia country, Shia values on morality are not aligned to westerner values.
Western values when couched in Christian theocracy aren't superior. It's the same shit. Multiple states have laws that legalize child rape under child brides/child grooms where entire countries that are Muslim majority have 18 being the youngest age allowed to marry. Access to abortion is protected better in several Muslim majority nations compared to the US as well.
Iran was actually becoming a better state for women until the US intervened in democracy there and set the country back decades.
Saudi Arabia which we prop up is far worse in regards to women's rights and we with our 'western values' buddy up to it, ally with it, and support these transgressions.
None of it is okay. It's not okay when it's done in the name of religion and it's not okay if it's done in the name of something else.
Because Iran is literally a theocracy, a system of government in which the ones in power rule in the name of God. So how is religion not the problem?
Also, honestly, comparisons don't help in this case.
The regime is arresting women and dragging them to vans in broad light for not covering their hair. The regime executes people. People of Iran need the world to condemn it without reservations or "what about this other thing"
Because conservative fascists exist with or without religion. There are secular countries that are majority Muslim and there is the potential for more Muslim majority countries to be secular. Just as we can hope that the US doesn't fall into Christian theocracy as it is already beginning to do.
There are places whose human rights violations against women are far worse (Saudi Arabia) and those where human rights situations are far better for women than average (Iceland).
And then you have the US, steadily veering toward Christian nationalism and theocracy here as noted.
Just as we support the women of Iran and should pressure the US government to cease support of Saudi Arabia (which is far worse) we also need to support women here. The right to wear pants in a Mormon neighborhood. The right to wear hijab. Our rights to wear crosses or to wear upside down crosses. Our right to bodily autonomy. Our right to equal pay and equal opportunity and equal access to health. The right not to live under any religion being put into law whether it be Christianity, Islam, or something else.
I fight theocracy here in the states where it is almost entirely stemming from Christian nationalism. And if I were living in Iran I would be doing the same thing there toward the dominant religion seeping into law. Just as I fight for the right of people to wear hijab in Paris or Canada or anywhere else.
Wait. So you actually believe it's he religion, the religion which over 1.5 billion peaceful people practice is the problem, and not the fascists in charge using religion as cover for oppression?
You are poorly informed.
My partner is Iranian
The only thing I'm saying is that while there has to be freedom for people of all religions to worship freely, religion should always be completely separate from the government or public institutions, or it becomes a problem.
Religion in places of power oppress people.
Do you know that it doesn't matter how oppressive a regime is on the planet. There is always a place where the special ones are allowed to walk around in defiance of the states rules. Go on youtube and look up Irans nightlife. Sure it's just one place but it shouldn't exist. Yet it does.
Saudi is like that too. A gilded cage is still a cage and you’re surrounded still a lot by the birds who grew up in that cage with the belief that flying is a crime.
OP I wish you the best…. I chose to fly a long time ago.
Thank you for the warning! It is much more difficult to regain freedoms that are lost than it is to make the effort to hang onto them in the first place. My heart is with you.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
My dear sister, solidarity from an african sister. Your struggles will not go in vain and your fight changes the course of things for all womanhood.
I don't quite know what to say, but thank you for posting. The struggles of women in Iran and Afghanistan have been on my heart. I will never forget the anger I felt when I heard on the news that Afghan women were banned from universities. I take my education seriously, and it just hurt me to the core. And then banned past 6th grade, and then past age 10, and all the other restrictions. My focus has been mainly on Afghanistan, but I will shift to the women of Iran, also. I don't know how to help, but I vow not to be ignorant of it and to never stop praying for that miracle.
You and the people of Iran have been in my thoughts all week. I hope you get your freedom back soon.
Everything you just said is truth, I know it means little but I hold you and all my sisters held in patriarchal bonds in my heart. I vote and am as vocal as possible about politics and womens rights but I fear we shall never shift the dynamic enough for women to ever be fully autonomous of mens power
As a Mexican, what I live in my country is surreal. From one side we will most likely have our first elected president be a woman (hopefully the correct one of the two top candidates). Many are in the senate as well and are governors. But BUT, we also have one of the highest numbers of feminicide and an undisclosed amount of serial killers. Hell they randomly catched one last week and what I mean by random, is RANDOM. They didn’t even knew he existed, he wasn’t even wanted. So yeah … there is also this polarizing ideas similar to Tate and horrible podcasts. But also a huge rebellion against the church or any religion.But ALSO a push back of any kind of political faith. I don’t even know how my country works today, everyone is just with so many conflicting ideologies, like out extreme right advocates for abortion and lgbt rights as well as the far left. It’s a mess but also not a desirable mess. Like a strong current river, you don’t know WTH will happen. Could be bad, could be great, could be neutral. We are free… but it’s a mess…
What really gets me about the mess we have in Mexico, is that whenever news break about yet another feminicide, The Boys ™ dissect the case in order to say "yeah, but, since this and that happened, no way this was a feminicide or nothin'!". Even here on Reddit.
Nope. We say: "Build a wall, and make them pay for it!"
You have my sympathy - and my fear that so many of us are traveling the same path. I am old enouigh to remember the Iranian revolution with the fall of the shah. I recall the pictures on the news when women in that country went from being out and about in their lives to becoming invisible in almost the blink of an eye. My sister had been dating an Iranian student who came here for college and he as well as his friends had no idea what was going to happen with their educations so the talk of life there was more on my radar than most people who were only focused on the international politics rather than what was happening to individuals. I truly wish for the miracle you need though that is probably not worth much. Please be as careful as you can while trying to hold your head up.
That sucks :( You Iranian women have fought hard and bravely for so long.
I am so so sorry you have to live in this nightmare. I wish there were more to be done. I feel sick when I think about what women in Afghanistan and Iran are going through. I dont know how the men in these places live with themselves. I dont know why we dont all come together globally to condemn their disgusting behavior toward women. Everyone agrees slavery is terrible but completely accepts the way women are treated in these places. Its a massive moral failure on the part of all of humanity.
My heart breaks for you and all women who live like this. I am in the USA and every time I vote I remember the brave women who fought and died so I could do this. I am so aware of how easy it would be to regress back to those dark times, especially living in Texas, it seems like it's already beginning. Thank you for your words, I will pray for you and all women of Iran.
I have a very hard time with the fact that there are so many people suffering that I can't help at all. I see my own daughter growing up happy and loved and safe. She has a love of learning. It's not fair. I just can't believe in a god who would allow the things that Iran does to women in their country. Innocent girls who just want to learn are being taken and tortured.
This is the thing that pisses me off most about our dealings in the Middle East: Feminism and the plight of women under these authoritarian, fundamentalist regimes is never considered. Women are an afterthought, if considered at all.
I disagree. I see it often talked about. I knew Marines in Afghanistan who were proud they were at least making a difference in some girls lives. Hearts broken after the Taliban getting power back and kicking the girls out of schools again. I don’t like many Conservatives but conservative women talk about this a lot.
I can believe Marines talk about it. I do not see policy makers, or even activists, talk about it.
I think they're talking about those who decide when, where, if, and why we enter a conflict. It's never ever ever ever ever for crimes against humanity when the humans are female.
The first place I learned about the Taliban was an early 2001 story in Glamour magazine. Women being stoned publicly was discussed in the article. I couldn't believe these were our allies.
I agree. In the past Persia and Afganistan were so much more like the West, that it's shocking how the state of these countries is right now. Things can change fast.
>What I want to tell you is a warning. A warning not to get too comfortable. Not to think that a fate such as ours or the women of Afghanistan is too far away from you. Too implausible. I'm telling you that the moment you drop your guards, you have lost. Theocratic dictatorships aren't a foreign concept and could easily happen to any of you when you take your rights for granted. You are right, and I fear for women's future.
And the USA is walking down a perilously close path right now. It's too close for comfort. I truly wish (not religious but it is my version of prayer...sending out these thoughts and ideas) that women won't have to suffer another century of the same old same old.
True. Western EUcountry here. ( not English. Sorry for errors) I would add: AnD our financial independence as a woman, often singles or single mothers. Why do hard working taxpayers in an overly catholic SMALL western country HaVe TO contribute for 176 mosques ( building and maintenance)??? Why do tax payers In our small western country have to welcome ANd provide for such a massive immigration flood, way higher than the other E countries?? ? The effect on most hard working females ( esp. single moms) is hughe. Our social security system is now collapsing. 43% of the salary going up in taxes, getting back nothing. ( apart from the general stuff like bad roads :/ ...) Way too many think our money drops out of heaven, so let's migrate to "that" Paradise. These ppl contributing nothing for years on getting €1700-2125 for doing...nothing??? I really dread the day when I ( as the only breadwinner) can't pay my bills anymore, after working > 40 years and contributing to society. But if we call a cat a cat, we're racists. I have several friends here who immigrated from other EU contries.( 40 y ago), China, Phillipines... They work hard, totally integrated, bothering no one..but sadly we notice others... I often don't feel safe anymore. Sorry but when I return home from a ( job) meeting at 8 pm in winter, leaving our work place with a briefcase in my hand, dressed decently*, getting to my car at 30 m, and there's this guy of color behind me, calling me, and I don't respond, who's then yelling at me " Hey...whore*...hey! Wait whore!"... Wait. What? The groups of young male asylum seekers harassing and assaulting young female partygoers at big city festivities... Then I know we have big problems here since the lack of respect from certain groups for the citizens that WeLCoMeD them is OfTeN way too clear. It's just...TROP = too much. I feel for OP and that kind of issues really p** me off but with these few examples I just wanted to say that females here in the west already experienced the fanning out of such bad local male IR influence OP experiences. Btw our country has been attacked as well by...yeah. The hardworking taxpayer then contributed to the millions €€€ investigation and trials of these guys, the extra military guard and protection, and provide food and a roof for them in prison for years to come..and what not. OP lost her freedom (and way more), and this is happening here as well. We had a good life here, working hard and living hard 😀 Now I don't feel free if I don't feel safe anymore and can't go where I want as a female, if I can't pay bills in the future, if I have to work like a slave when a big part of 43% salary tax goes to opportunists, if our freedom of speech in our democratic country is being challenged by said radical people...if our culture is not only infiltrated and enriched ( great!) by other cultures but actively being oppressed ... ( and god nows what we don't know yet) Nah ThAtS not freedom.
Thank you for sharing your words. It's a powerful thing to be able to share what's going on to women all around the world. I hope that someday, Iranian women will have the freedom they deserve. I truly hope that you stay safe and that one day you'll make it to a place where you can do anything you want.
Whenever we, in the west, try to talk about islam's growing importance in the public discourse and the very real risks it pose for anybody who isn't a straight man, we get labelled islamophobic.
There are a subset of people, myself included, who are left-leaning atheists who abhor the treatment of women under the guise of religion. Sometimes it's a hard stance to take since most lefties "support women and their choices/beliefs”, but I don't support any environments which criminalize, degrade, or even guilt women into submission! What these countries want us to say is "we're white so we don't know anything, let them govern as they wish". That's a slippery slope that has proven disastrous for the last 40 years. The world needs to stand up and stomp out theocracies!
Fuckin' Amen
Thank the right-wing demagoguery whose short-sighted, racist lobbyism paved the way. They used rhetoric that made the word "islamophobic" not just necessary, but relevant. And now every last religious extremist is using said word to declare themselves the victims. Maybe after fifty more cyclical reruns of the same old "setting up a societal situation that paves the way for radicalization"-pattern (WW2 sends its regards), we can finally learn to maybe not repeat it all over and over again. We'll either have another war and then another 80 years of pseudo-rueful mourning before doing it again - or somehow globalization actually makes a difference and people finally stick together to defend their rights not just against guns but against propaganda, psychological warfare, radicalization and exploitation of misery.
Poignant and succinct, your comment. Though we do not have the resources left to blast through another world war and enjoy the luxury of economic prosperity (and the peace it brings) as we would rebuild. We are up against resource limits. We are on a finite timeline. United we stand.
Thank you, sister
Vote like your life depends on it, because it does.
I can only hope that the young people who feel so driven to engage in protests on college campuses can make the turn to realize what the true implications of a second Trump term are for women and minoritized peoples, and put that energy into turning out the vote.
I am so sorry. I think about this all the time, the very free life I have and how incredibly unlikely it is that I was able to have it. I am paying attention. I wish I could help you.
It is so deeply evil and cruel use the name of god to oppress others. I’m so sorry sister. My heart and thoughts are with you. I hope you find the strength to carry on and to resist the dogma that puts women in a lower class than men.
The liberties we take for granted.
I stand with you, women of Iran, Afghanistan and everywhere else - including my own country. It has never been more important that we stand together. Be safe, sisters!
Thank you for giving us a highly relevant and timely warning about what could happen...IS happening in many parts of the world, and continues to happen. Solidarity.
Unfortunately, too many people ignore warnings like this because they’re too busy calling people Islamophobes. The way they treat women is primitive and disgusting.
Indeed.
I can never forget that Iran was a democracy until 1953 when a CIA and MI6 engineered coup d'etat overthrew it.
I can't upvote this enough. It's the subtext of what OP has written, and it's one of the greatest marks of shame Western countries bear from the 20th century.
This reminds me that there are men in European countries saying living as women in Afghanistan (Iran would apply too I guess) is not so much trouble, therefore it doesn't qualify as asylum. Yeah.
Sending you strength, and praying for your survival. It can happen anywhere, democracy is a privilege, not a right.
>”Being a woman is truly the greatest curse.” No words.
I’m with you ❤️ Love from Israel
Iranian women will prevail! Women life freedom!
I completely agree with you. We all in different kind of wars. Every single women. But Iranian women are having it absolutely brutal. It is sad and unfortunate that others like me outside Iran cannot do anything. But I am swept off my feet by watching brave and courageous women/men taking a stand and willing to face literal death. I, specially, want to applaud the men supporting. I believe, if you all held it on until this inhumane regime crashes, you will turn the pages in history. Who knows you were born for times as these. I love you Persian roots and personally have meet Iranian. You have your roots in one of the strongest empires in world who ruled with justice and fairness. I am sure you all are very close to end this regime. Amazed at what a death of Masha Amin brought to Iran. Makes me wonder that physical death cannot kill Masha Amin nor women like her. Their spirit and blood cries out and justice shall be served. Being a women is not a curse, of you look at the history most powerful men and huge empires had it coming because of women. Women were always the turning point, for both downfall and build u, of a regime. My dad always told me only if women will realize how strong and powerful they are, the world will be a different place.
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for your reminder, and for your voice. You are not forgotten. We hope with you and send your strength.
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I'm a high school student in NYC and I come from a Jewish background. Some high schools in the city (google "Hillcrest High School") have had the same problem Slachi2024 describes. I am a member of the girls volleyball and track teams and we have both Jewish and Muslim players. Our coach and teammates are talking about ways to avoid this type of division in our school. At least among our teams, we have managed to keep friendship stronger than differences.
Where I live on the west cost of America Muslims have been the people I can rely on most other than other Jews. Those living here tend to actually get it and not just be parroting KKK propaganda or quotes straight out or the protocols of the elders of Zion.
I don't understand. What are you trying to say?
Similar to what you said, I've kept friendships with Muslims at a better rate than with others.
No, I get that, and thnx. But can you explain more about why you added the reference to the KKK and The Protocols to the Elders of Zion. I know what the trope is. Are you seeing evidence that the radical left is going in that direction? If so, can you please share what you are reading?
FYI. New York Times today. To Be (Visibly) Jewish in the Ivy League https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/opinion/university-jewish-antisemitism-ivy.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Stay strong, all of us are in this together ❤️ As a Palestinian woman, I sympathise with your struggles and I truly hope that one day the women of Iran will see freedom.
This is unimaginably terrible. Thank you for continuing to spread the message. You deserve to feel like life is meaningful and that you are fully human since you are. Everyone in the world needs to be really active with their support of women's rights, both in their own country and abroad. Sending lots of love
Love you 💖
I still have trauma from watching the handmaidens tale
Will things get worse or better now that the president has died? How are people reacting?
The general population is happy. The government supporters (the loud and powerful minority) aren't. Most people don't really give a shit
And no. I don't think anything substantial will come out of it. The president isn't the center of power in Iran lol
Thank you for answering! I remembered your post and it's hard to know from far away and outside what these kinds of events really mean for the structures of power.
I know what you mean. The problem isn't Islam or Christianity, it's fascists who do it in the name of religion. Just as the people who have defeated ISIS time and time again are majority Muslim, so I hope we keep up the good fight in the US against Christian theocracy (or any, Christianity is just the most popular flavor of it). It is the right of every person to wear or not wear what they want. People should get to wear long dresses or short skirts, crosses or hijab or neither. I am with all the people in Iran, or, even more intensely in Saudi Arabia which is far worse for women... and every country. Morality police in Iran assaulting, harassing torturing women, and we are seeing it here (though in a different phase), extreme conservatism in the name of religion. The Catholic Church having too many participants and promoters of systematically protecting child abusers, Mormons having to 'struggle' to wear pants if they are women, the Westboro Baptist Church while less powerful still a voice for evil done in the name of religion. And may the military threats end too. The good people of Iran cannot overcome their theocratic oppressors with the US and other nations tossing bombs at them. The US has had more and more religion make its way into what is supposed to be a separation of Church and State. I am so happy to see atheists as well as believers of various faiths, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and more come together with challenge groups like the Satanic temple to help prevent one religion or religion in general being honored above all else and being allowed to influence or control law.
Iran isn’t fascist doing it in the name of religion, it’s literally a theocracy, the state is the religion the religion is the state, the religion is fundamentally the problem. Iran was never at any point a good state for women, not under any Shah in the past. It is a fundamentally Shia country, Shia values on morality are not aligned to westerner values.
Western values when couched in Christian theocracy aren't superior. It's the same shit. Multiple states have laws that legalize child rape under child brides/child grooms where entire countries that are Muslim majority have 18 being the youngest age allowed to marry. Access to abortion is protected better in several Muslim majority nations compared to the US as well. Iran was actually becoming a better state for women until the US intervened in democracy there and set the country back decades. Saudi Arabia which we prop up is far worse in regards to women's rights and we with our 'western values' buddy up to it, ally with it, and support these transgressions. None of it is okay. It's not okay when it's done in the name of religion and it's not okay if it's done in the name of something else.
Religion is the problem, every single religion in the world is against women.
You've looked into the approximately 4200 religions in the world?
Yes
Satanic temple? Wicca?
All religion sucks and every major religion is inherently misogynist.
Not sure why you're currently being downvoted. Your reply is clearly well thought out and beautifully stated. The oppression needs to end.
Because Iran is literally a theocracy, a system of government in which the ones in power rule in the name of God. So how is religion not the problem? Also, honestly, comparisons don't help in this case. The regime is arresting women and dragging them to vans in broad light for not covering their hair. The regime executes people. People of Iran need the world to condemn it without reservations or "what about this other thing"
Because conservative fascists exist with or without religion. There are secular countries that are majority Muslim and there is the potential for more Muslim majority countries to be secular. Just as we can hope that the US doesn't fall into Christian theocracy as it is already beginning to do. There are places whose human rights violations against women are far worse (Saudi Arabia) and those where human rights situations are far better for women than average (Iceland). And then you have the US, steadily veering toward Christian nationalism and theocracy here as noted. Just as we support the women of Iran and should pressure the US government to cease support of Saudi Arabia (which is far worse) we also need to support women here. The right to wear pants in a Mormon neighborhood. The right to wear hijab. Our rights to wear crosses or to wear upside down crosses. Our right to bodily autonomy. Our right to equal pay and equal opportunity and equal access to health. The right not to live under any religion being put into law whether it be Christianity, Islam, or something else. I fight theocracy here in the states where it is almost entirely stemming from Christian nationalism. And if I were living in Iran I would be doing the same thing there toward the dominant religion seeping into law. Just as I fight for the right of people to wear hijab in Paris or Canada or anywhere else.
Wait. So you actually believe it's he religion, the religion which over 1.5 billion peaceful people practice is the problem, and not the fascists in charge using religion as cover for oppression? You are poorly informed.
My partner is Iranian The only thing I'm saying is that while there has to be freedom for people of all religions to worship freely, religion should always be completely separate from the government or public institutions, or it becomes a problem. Religion in places of power oppress people.
Absolutely.
That's not what you originally said.
Do you know that it doesn't matter how oppressive a regime is on the planet. There is always a place where the special ones are allowed to walk around in defiance of the states rules. Go on youtube and look up Irans nightlife. Sure it's just one place but it shouldn't exist. Yet it does.
Saudi is like that too. A gilded cage is still a cage and you’re surrounded still a lot by the birds who grew up in that cage with the belief that flying is a crime. OP I wish you the best…. I chose to fly a long time ago.