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

Surely they can just identify as men, problem solved

Clearly you dont see/know about how the Saudi's oppress women in their country.

But yeh, lets not interfere.

So why we interfering in Iran?

The majority of Iran's public is NOT uprising. What does that tell you?

As per your statement, they appear to be happy with their way of life there.

The shah was not exactly a good egg

An understatement if ever there was one....a corrupt bastard installed there after the UK/US and others overthrew a democratically elected Govt.

What we see today is the result of that action - but no one dare admit that.

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...

The changes went with the soldiers.

The UK & US cannot police Islamic countries and cultures.

We can disagree with it and protest against the barbaric regime , change needs to come from within.

Until the men on their homeland are in agreement with women progressing it isn't going to happen.

@HelplessSoul you cannot compare Saudia Arabia to Iran. Saudia Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and Sharia Law. Iran was Zoroastrian and still this religion has a huge imprint on Iranian values. Although I do agree the West is very silent about Saudia Arabia's disgusting human rights abuses. Women

Do look uo what Iran looked like pre 1979/ 80. Do look into feminist movements in Iran with the exact timescale as in the UK. The Islamic Republic plunged Iran into the dark ages. I suggest reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, or the film version. It's very good! And informative.

Most of my relatives do NOT agree with the enforced hijab - girls, women , boys and men. The section of my family who are religious and traditional also do NOT agree with repression, beating and torturing and raping people to terrify them into subjugation. There have been so many killed and exiled and many protests and acts of defiance since 1979.They have killed so many men and as well as girls and women.

As for the Shah not being a good egg, he was no better or worse than our royals.
He DID want to nationalise Iran's oil actually and many think the West allowed his demise just as they absolutely did by engineering a CIA led coup against the progressive PM Mossadegh. The Shah was seen as weak for not protecting and was punished with the revolution.

BP used to be the Anglo- Iranian oil company. Then the West with all the Arab states supported Saddam Husseins invasion of Iran. There is a bitter history.

Yes, British and Western women SHOULD speak up for women in Iran and everywhere else where they are abused.

@eglantine7 "you cannot compare Saudia Arabia to Iran"

Absolutely you can, just as you absolutely have the right not to. :)

The birthplace of Islam has nothing to do with location - rather, its about the persecution of women - and its far worse in Wahabi Arabia. But alas, the West doesnt want to touch that with a shitty stick because it doesnt fit their narrative.

But as said - as the world buys Wahabi oil and does arms deals etc, everyone turns a blind eye to the savagery that goes on there.

But as soon as a few radicals in Iran make a fuss over a womans murder, the whole Western world is suddenly angling for regime change in Iran - even though the majority of Iranian citizens are NOT protesting.

However strict Iranian authorities are - they cannot "police" and control such a vast country - yet there is no uproar outside of major cities where substantial numbers of Iranian citizens live and outnumber those in cities.

How is the uk being silent?

there have been protests here
its been in the news constantly

there is a lot of things happening in Iran around it that needs to be put in place by the Iranian government. Other country’s get accused of meddling when they do anything. My partner is Iranian it’s not as simple as just get involved but needs to come from them.

there have been lots of support groups here for the women maybe you’re just not aware.

A few radicals?! You really have no idea what you are talking about.

It is old, young, middle class and poor, men and women of all ethnicities who are sick of the hypocrisy qnd brutality.

You cannot compare Saudia Arabia to Iran any more than you can compare Saudua Arabia to any other country. Yes I know all about the Wahabbis and their rise to power linked to oil discovery. Saudua Arabja was a bedouin country, not at comparable to Iran

It is old, young, middle class and poor, men and women of all ethnicities who are sick of the hypocrisy qnd brutality

Yes, it is all of the above - but it is far, far from a majority. It is mostly the so-called liberal elite, mostly in Tehran and major cities.

There is a reason no protests are happening in (say) Qom or in rural areas.

The UK is not being silent but sections of the Left are saying that this is foreign agitated and echoing what Khamenei the dictator is saying and are reluctant to support this precious, brave, admirable movement.
Huge shame!

Sanandaj in the Kurdish region is poor so is Baluchistan and look at what's happening there. Mashad. Oil workers in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. Everywhere. It's happening everywhere.
It's only surprising it hasn't happened sooner but then they crack down on thr most horrific ways.

he was no better or worse than our royals

Oh come on, I'm far from a monarchist but I don't think Tampon Charlie is going to torture anyone!

That's true and that is a huge reason why The Shah was removed. But you don't think the Islamic didn't do worse. There are mass graves from the 80s when they purged the revolutionaries who were not Islamic fundamentalists and were Socialists. That was a lot of people!

I'm sorry its very sad to see people not supporting this movement. It's hard to defend the murder of a young Kurdish Iranian woman who sparked this protest for not wearing her hijab properly .
When I visited Iran this year so many girls and women were defiantly dropping their hijab. I felt so happy they were getting braver and braver.

Iran is home to almost 80m people.

So yeh, it IS a few radicals protesting versus the VAST majority who are not.

As for comparing Wahabi Arabia and Iran - its valid. Both are majority Muslim countries.

One is predominantly Sunni/Wahabi and the other is predominantly Shia. Yet the media and society seems to jump with glee to lambast Iran when something against woment happens, but they are nowhere to be seen when it happens to women in Wahabi Arabia.

Where is the UK outrage for that poor woman jailed for 34 years for tweeting in Wahabi Arabia? A woman who studied in the UK, no less.

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

The double standards is what I am getting at here - that oppression of women happens in BOTH countries - yet somehow Iran is the only one in the crosshairs.

Absolutely @eglantine7 - both regimes are/were guilty of enormous brutality, albeit against largely different targets. It’s true that women’s lives were largely better under the shah, but it’s a vast oversimplification to assume shah = western, good, Khomeini = Islamic, bad.

Many Iranians have been tortured, killed and oppressed by the state. I fear this will just be horribly suppressed and they will be back to square 1. I have heard that hezbollah “trainees” are helping the morality police to crush the protests, and are brutal.

Meanwhile, Iranian currency is worthless, ordinary people suffer privation under sanctions and whole state is corrupt.

Well OK well please do make some noise about Saudia Arabia and the unsavoury ties we in Britain have with them. We have been saying this for years and years!
We can't really have this conversation with Iran, can we? Iran has had severed ties with the UK since 1979.
It is a TOTALLY different situation. Culturally the countries are very different. Even the Muslims are Shia in Iran. Most Iranians are secular nowadays and absolutely turned off religion. People in Iran are sick of the country's money being spent on Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthis. They don't give a shit about these proxy wars and don't want involvement. Iran has huge poverty and no Tehran is not a wealthy city, it suffers from desperate poverty as do regions all over the country.
Iran also has Christians and Jews. Everyone is tired of this Islamic regime and its barbaric "morality police".

@Deguster yes they do use the foreign militia, Hezbollah, that they fund to come and beat, torture, kill and rape protesters and dissenters. They did this in 2009 and I have no doubt they are using them again.

They are still trying to get UK prisoners out of Iran (ie. the people who were not released with Nazanin)

Iran has had severed ties with the UK since 1979.

Welcome to revisionist news.

Iran did not sever ties with anyone.

The West severed ties with Iran when their puppet-Shah was rightly ousted. But lets not let truth get in the way of a good story eh....

"Everyone is tired of this Islamic regime and its barbaric "morality police"."

Except the vast majority of Iranians who are NOT protesting...you know, the 79.9 million people there....

We literally are too poor, too small and too weak to do anything. We literally don’t have the military power to invade Afghanistan and Iran to liberate women.

And it’s not true that Ukraine refugees are getting better or more support, we airlifted as many Afghans as we could and if they can get over the border, they have the same avenues to come here as asylum seekers as do Ukrainians. We didn’t airlift any Ukrainians out….I have friends that have had Afghan refugees in their home.

Oh @HelplessSoul I'm tired of this now and you. You obviously have no connection with Iran but 100 percent opinionated and determined to put down this recent wave of protests.

To everyone else: yes, this protests ARE spanning generations, social classes, regions, ethnicities, religions, secular and Muslims. It is not foreign agitated, Iranians have been suppressed and they are desperate for change.

And these protests were sparked by outrage spread on social media from the murder at the hands of the vile "morality police" of a young Kurdish Iranian woman for "improper hijab". This protest was led by women and girls. What is there not to support?

Absolutely please do morally support Iranians who are trying desperately get rid of this atrocious fascist theocracy. There is no agenda but some are adamant to insist there is one.

@Discovereads oh god , no nobody wants that kind of help!! 😅😳
Please don't assume that's what was meant.
Just support the movement, join protests, send supportive messages to Iranians etc

There are reformists and moderates in the Iranian government too. Its the hardliners that need booting out.

Newsflash, even if we had a few million women protesting in London for the women of Iran. That’s not going to help the women of Iran.

Supportive messages are also useless and only make the sender feel better about themselves.

There is literally nothing we can do.

@Youg

why would you expect more from this terrible brexit right winger BS government.

they have ruined everything

@eglantine7 You obviously have no connection with Iran but 100 percent opinionated and determined to put down this recent wave of protests.

No idea how you claim that I have no connection to Iran (or indeed what qualifies you to judge me in regards to that). I have no need to publicise my connections to Iran.

For the record, I am in no way trying to suppress the protests - all I tried to highlight is that the vast majority of Iran's population are NOT behind it.

Just because you dont agree with that indisputable fact and cannot prove otherwise, it doesnt change the reality of the matter. Wishing you well.

While it's awful what they're going through I think change can only come from within. We've interfered before and while it might look better to start it'll just get worse. Protest all you want here but what good does ghat do. Only the people of Iran can make the changes.