“Once again defying prohibitions, Iranian women and men jumped over the flames according to the Zoroastrian tradition, dating back to the pre-Islamic era.” — DANIEL LEAL / AFP
FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE – Six months after the death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian women continue to take to the streets despite the regime’s repression, writes Nazila Golestan. More than ever, these heroines are waiting for our support, adds the spokesperson of the Hamava association.
Television producer Nazila Golestan is an Iranian dissident and spokesperson for the Hamava association, a “national coalition for a democratic and secular Iran.”
Six months have passed since the murder of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian theocratic regime. Her death, after being beaten by the morality police for a “misplaced” veil, was the spark that set aflame a country already under heavy pressure for four decades. For six months, Iranian women and men have been courageously taking to the streets, shouting “Women, Life, Freedom.” Despite the systematic use of violence and digital blackouts to silence them, protesters continue to defy the regime.
Two days ago, it was the Fire Festival in Iran. Once again defying prohibitions, Iranian women and men jumped over the flames according to the Zoroastrian tradition, dating back to the pre-Islamic era. Iranian women claimed this symbolic custom as a political act: they burned their veils by throwing them into the fire and dancing around.
Despite repeated threats, the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement courageously persists and renews its forms of protest.
The Islamic Republic is a theocratic political system in which corruption is institutionally and structurally embedded in all sectors of society.
Even minors are victims of repression. Around a hundred girls have been exposed to gas in several schools across the country. This barbaric act is seen by protesters as a form of retaliation by the regime against Iranian girls and women, who are the leaders of the protests. Likewise, for dancing without a hijab from the rebellious Ekteban neighborhood in Tehran on Women’s Rights Day, five young women were arrested by security forces. To denounce this misogynistic act of repression, women have repeated this dance throughout the country and then around the world. It has become the new symbol of the struggle against the sexual discrimination they face in Iran.
The Islamic Republic is a theocratic political system in which corruption is systematically and structurally institutionalized in all sectors of society. The Supreme Leader is the sole authority. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic assumes that women are second-class citizens; legally, they are the property of men and must live their lives carefully to avoid breaking a multitude of diverse prohibitions under threat of punishment up to death. Economic prohibitions, restrictions on movement, prohibitions preventing them from having autonomy over themselves.
Every year, more than €134 billion (6,000 billion Tooman) of the Iranian public budget is allocated to financing crimes against women. This funds the industry of repression and systematic violence against women. More than 30 institutions spend a significant part of this budget to advertise and enforce the hijab and control “modesty.” Others, such as the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” organization, are specifically responsible for repression and violence against women in public and private spaces. This year, the budget of this institution amounts to €400 million (1,180 billion Rials).
Thus, the sexual discrimination institutionalized by the Islamic Republic regime constitutes a sexual apartheid.
Nazila Golestan
In addition to these misogynistic repression institutions, tens of billions are spent each year on Islamic propaganda organizations and publications, and exhibitions on the hijab and Islamic modesty are organized across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people financially benefit from this industry.
Thus, the sexual discrimination institutionalized by the Islamic Republic regime constitutes a sexual apartheid. Although denounced, it is not the subject of any specific convention because it is essentially considered an internal issue within each state.
Today, six months after the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini, in every corner of Iran, from central provinces to the most peripheral areas, Iranians of all social classes and backgrounds protest at the risk of their lives to achieve a nonviolent transition from Islamic theocracy to a secular democracy that respects national sovereignty and territorial integrity under the Iranian flag. The resistance continues even behind bars for the leaders of the mobilization, such as Narges Mansouri, Toomaj Salehi, Narges Mohammadi, Soheila Hejab, Atena Daemi, Gitti Pourfazel, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mohammad Najafi. These are journalists, teachers, lawyers, artists, doctors, and environmental activists—ordinary people who are heroes and heroines because of their courage. They are determined and organized. They are inside Iran and need our support.