The brave women of Iran - and the UK’s silence

[Youg]

The women of Iran are fighting for their rights, they are risking their lives to fight back. The Iranian government is preventing them sharing this with the world but we know these things are happening and we should definitely be talking about it.

BBC Video of Protests

I think those schoolgirls are amazing. I've been following this since news first broke about the protests. I really hope that this brings about the change that Iran needs for it's female population to blossom.
From small acorns grow large oaks.

Bump bump bump.

An educated and empowered woman can change the world.

I’m also following this news. I stand in awe of those women and girls, their courage is humbling. The spiteful, crumbling old clerics, with their vile misogyny are no longer relevant to the vast majority of young Iranians.

There's a lot of coverage and discussion on Twitter that I'm following, I can link some profiles if you're interested op? I agree though not much being said on Mumsnet, I don't know why as I can't speak for others, but my daughter and I are talking, reading about it and watching the reports and footage every day. what these woman in Iran are doing is incredibly brave, even more so with all the horrendous abuse being meted out to protesters, and the hideous deaths of some incredibly brave and selfless women.

There was something about it on R4 Woman's Hour today - journalist(?) saying how brave they are. I didn't hear every word but I had the impression that it's not being easily stamped on.

When the Uk and US army were in Afghanistan there was a lot of talk about how they were helping to empower and 'free' the women there. But in Iran not so much...

People are talking about it? I hear a piece daily

It’s awful and they are very brave

Iranian Embassy, 16 Princes Gate, London SW7 1PT,
Ambassador, Mohsen Baharvand
0207 225 4200
If I put a pair of gloves on so my fingerprints aren't on it I could drop him a notecard to say that on the radio I heard that the marriage minimum age for girls was 18, but when the Shah was deposed and the first Ayatollah took power it was changed to 9 and now it's increased to 13 and I wonder if that's true, because if it is, how about it going back to 18. Yes, of course letters might go straight in the bin, but it would cost me less than £1, and I don't fancy travelling over to Iran or even spending a day demonstrating in London. Well, I've sewn myself up now. I'm going to have to do my little tiny bit.

I don't know but I was wondering the same thing.
It would be lovely to give these women some sort of support. They're so brave especially with recent events and I hope they win their battle.

Maybe someone could hack into their media and tell them the world is with them, or arrange a plane to do a leaflet drop with the message.

Not sure how feasible either of these would be.

There was a well attended rally in Newcastle at the weekend

Lots of my students are Iranian and the stories they tell me have made me cry on more than 1 occasion

I tell them every week that I'm happy they're here. I ask what else we can do and they say "just listen and welcome us"

I am on TikTok because I wanted to know what my teens were watching and there are videos of Iranian schoolgirls protesting at school without headscarves on. Really brave and inspiring

Iranians are bursting for freedom and have been since 1979 when the Mullahs hijacked the revolution. Then came the compulsory hijab and a whole host of Sharia laws which subjugated women and plunged them into the dark ages. Iranians are on the whole progressive people. But then the UK and the West and the entire Arab world supported Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980.
The sanctions on Iran are problematic in their effectiveness, they hurt the ordinary people. The ruling powers are wealthy.
It's a horrible position for Iranians to be in. As women in the UK and all over the world, yes you SHOULD make some noise and support the protests. Iranians are literally alone in the world. Fuck Syria, Russia or whoever is supposed to be Iran's Ally, Iranian people, women girls, men and boys are fighting alone.

Wonder why there's no such support for Muslim women oppressed by the terrorist state of Saudi Arabia?

You know, the place where the 9-11 hijackers came from and women are jailed for tweeting etc?

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/16/saudi-woman-given-34-year-prison-sentence-for-using-twitter

Or is it because it doesnt fit our narrative because the UK/world has arms/oil/trade deals with the Wahabi's of Arabia - where in contrast the UK has very minimal trade, if at all, with Iran (medicinal etc).

Fair to say Muslim women, wherever they are, seem to be oppressed by Govts, yet we hear very little about it....

Thankyou for that address

Fair to say Muslim women, wherever they are, seem to be oppressed by Govts, yet we hear very little about it....

I think it is fair to say that all women battle oppression some granted far worse than others, the women who face jail or death for defiance.

I don't think it will ever really change, we've progressed against the odds but "women" are facing cancellation again in this civilised society, what hope have women living in a repressed society got.

I'll do what I can to support them from afar.

The men in these countries need to speak up in support of their wife's, sisters, daughters.

The UK government today has imposed sanctions on the ‘morality police’ and political and other named individuals who will be unable to travel to UK and their assets in UK will be frozen.

As to the news, I’ve heard multiple reports on the radio every day.

there was a protest outside the Iranian Embassy this Sunday too.
lots of women, even more men. Lots of massive flags, smaller posters drawing attention to other offences by the ruling regime

Funny how the UK wont impose the same sanctions on the Saudi morality police....

I don't think it's funny at all. We shouldn't interfere with other countries where the people appear to be happy with that political system and their way of life under it.

In Iran, there is a movement amongst the people expressing a high level of discontent, we should therefore show those people that they have support and this is one way of doing that. I suspect that if a similar thing happens in Saudi, then similar sanctions would be put in place.

I remember a film I watched years ago and bought on dvd.
It's called "not without my daughter" about an American woman who marries a man with Iranian roots, he gets his wife and young daughter to visit his relatives in Iran, swearing on the Quran they'll come back.
But they don't. He keeps them there. It's based on a true story and it's a really good film, if anyone gets the chance to watch it, it gives some idea of the oppression of women in Iran. This was in the 70s and nothing has changed.

The Book of Fate "Fifty Years of Life in Iran" by Parinoush Saniee is worth reading.

If the UK government makes statements supporting the Iranian rebels, that would be a huge gift to the Iranian government: they would say “See! The rebels are Western agents! The West is trying to corrupt our youth!” and this would lose the rebels support from Iranian moderates who might otherwise support regime change in Iran.

The UK is right to stay relatively quiet. We know what is going on, it’s covered in our news, but whether or not the Iranian people remove their government is up to them, we can’t police the whole world and even if we could we shouldn’t.

The spiteful, crumbling old clerics, with their vile misogyny are no longer relevant to the vast majority of young Iranians

Its way more complicated than that. Those crumbling clerics were thrust into power in living memory by a popular revolution comprised largely of young people who were sick of another kind of tyranny. The shah was not exactly a good egg - his main redeeming quality was not being an Islamic fundamentalist nut bag.

There are huge swathes of religious (and often uneducated) Iranians who support the regime and believe that its oppressive treatment of women is the correct interpretation of Islam. It is a huge country with a varied population. Typically those opposing the regime are educated, city-dwelling and “westernized”, but they are certainly not a majority everywhere. Far from it.

I applaud these brave women and have more reason than most Brits to despise the regime - they confiscated my FIL’s assets and forced him into hiding, and more recently arrested my SIL for un-Islamic dress and searched her apartment without a warrant - roughing her up a bit in the process - looking for protesters. The morality police are utter cunts by any standard.

I rather suspect the reason there is little coverage is because the nutters in charge keep disabling the internet. And sadly I suspect these protests will also come to nothing - although I wish it was not the case.