Women of Iran: The Legacy of Fighters

A powerful feminist movement, one with no leader or headquarters, but the home of every Iranian who believes in equal rights. This is currently the strongest women’s movement in the Middle East and my hopes for Iran’s future lie with the women, first and foremost.

- Shirin Ebadi

“Jin, Jian, Azadi!” ("Women, Life, Freedom") The chant that can be heard echoing through the walls of Iran, since the murder of Mahsa Amini, expresses that freedom for women means freedom for all. Here's the story of a 22-year-old that made The Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, after her demise. A spark that ignited a revolution. On September 13, 22-year-old Jina “Mahsa” Amini was arrested by Iran’s morality police for “improperly” wearing her hijab. Jina died, 3 days later while still under custody, as a result of severe abuse and police brutality. Since then, Iranian women have roared in rebellion, marching the streets in protest, chopping off their hair, and burning their hijab, while demanding justice and change in regime.

She wasn’t an activist. Her face and her experience were very intimately and tangibly familiar to every family in Iran, because every time their mothers, sisters, and their daughters go out of the house, they have been harassed by the morality police, or detained or even beaten.

- Hadi Ghaemi

So what is this law anyway? The new Iranian government, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, imposed a mandatory dress code that forced women to wear a headscarf or hijab and loose-fitting clothing that disguises their figures in public. To validate if a woman's clothing is "appropriate", morality police are positioned all over the country, with the sole purpose of assessing if her dress is tight, short or 'covers enough' and if she's showing 'too much' hair or wearing inordinate amounts of makeup. In addition to this, if they fail to abide by the rules, retribution is faced through fines, jail time or cruel acts like scourging, physical harassment or even death. Of course! Amini is not the first person to die for the cause, and she certainly will not be the last.

The death toll has come up to almost 500, and yet, the women refuse to relent. They live in a country where their life and testimony are valued at half of that of a man, a country where they have lost their right to divorce and the right to custody of their children, a country whose civil code provides that girls can marry at 13 and boys at age 15, as well as at younger ages if authorized by a judge, and a country, where 95% of the abortions are made illegally resulting in tragic lifetime complications and even death. Here's the thing, I was always looked at as the vivacious feminist in my class. The topic of the discussion happened to be the then protests against Roe V Wade, and I had someone ask me what difference it makes to bat about someone else's problem in another country. I could have let it go and not given it a second thought, but the question kept lingering somewhere in my mind.

Why? Why do I care? Why do I so deeply feel responsibility over sympathy for the women whose lives are on the line for something that is beyond my control? It took me some time to realise that my part is a very small one, in a world that is yet to be fixed. Or in the ever-so-famous words of Rihanna, "If there is one thing I've learnt, it's that we can only fix this world together, we can't let the desensitivity seep in." Look at the things we hear while advocating for a larger cause; 'if it is your problem, then it's not mine'; 'it's a woman's problem'; 'it's a black people's problem.' Like OUR sisters in Iran, there are countless women all around the world who've been silenced and are bound by the shackles anchoring them from going out in the streets and feeling alive once again. While I sit here writing this, there are women and girls not much older than me, who are shot, beaten and killed for their opposition. They march the streets in defiance, not knowing if they will return or not and with nothing but their unfaltering temerity, and yet it is baffling how callous we can get when we've experienced privilege.

So when we're marching, protesting, and posting about the Michael Brown Juniors and the Atatiana Jeffersons of the world, ask your friends to pull up.

- Rihanna

While we see the Gen Z of today front-lining the protests against prejudicial dress codes, sexual harassment, abortion bans, period poverty, freedom of sexuality and so much more, we have once again proven to the world that we will not be inheriting the silence of the previous generations. Despite the internet ban, point-blank murders and continued oppression, the people of Iran stood their ground undaunted and left their mark in history: a legacy that will not be forgotten.

In memory of Mohammed Moradi and all those who sacrificed their lives bringing all eyes on Iran. Deep respect for the youth and women of Iran; those who have resisted for decades and those audaciously battling on the streets.

Sai Nandhana