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

Nobody wants Western military intervention and Iranians do not want that because of so many fucked up messes created in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq. No thanks! I know Trump and his people were trying to fund MEK but they are hated in Iran! So of course Iranians want to get rid of this fascist theocracy themselves, but some moral support would help so much.

www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/jina-mahsa-amini-death-what-to-do/

To those interested, but feel powerless as I do.
this is what we can do. All we can do

For Mahsa Amini and elsewhere follow such same advice...

@HelplessSoul you are absolutely right, I know next to nothing about the oppression of women in Saudi. I know enough to know it's not a place that I ever want to go and see, and that it's somewhere I would discourage my dc from going, especially dd.

That's why I admire those girls in Iran.

I feel that change must come from within, they all have males in their lives who must now step up and support their daughters and sisters to end the oppression. When the women in Saudi have enough, they should expect the same from their male relatives.

Pleased to see Jeremy Corbyn come out in support of Iranian Girls and Women ❤. Large parts of the Left need to give their heads a wobble!

And it’s not true that Ukraine refugees are getting better or more support,

I agree.

100,000's were resettled.

Afghanistan received a lot more in support in terms of creating a better life on the ground.

Creating education and work opportunities for women.

They were trained to fight and giving the tools to do so.

They decided not to fight the Taliban once the soldiers left, girls were removed from education, old rules returned, the people are left starving and repressed probably worse off than before.

I think it's really important not to compare countries with so little in common to each other. Ukraine is nothing like Afghanistan, Afghanistan is very different to Iran and so is Saudia Arabia.
Afghanistan failed to defend against the Taliban because it is largely an illiterate country with a huge amount of corruption and tribalism and more importantly the people of Afghanistan just did not trust the government in Kabul. This is why Britain and the USA failed there. A lot of money wasted and a lot of lives lost and back to square one for women.

I saw this video on YouTube about protests in London for Iranian freedom

I so do agree, the silence by Liz Truss is very disappointing. But then, nothing from Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Oprah either Michelle Obama's autobiography translated in Farsi was a bestseller in Iran ( Yes they do have bookshops there! ) It's all very disappointing.

Agreed

The Obamas did tweet a poignant tweet yesterday. Oprah and kamala have also posted on Instagram. Still nothing on social media from liz truss although she’s posted regularly about Ukraine this week.

Our PM doesn't care about the people she represents let alone anyone else. She's only interested in Ukraine because it affects her pockets

Didnt ever see Barry and Michelle hark the same for Saudi women, or Yemeni women et al when he had power for 8 years....

The sheer rank hypocracy of it all is what gets me.

One girl murdered in Iran - lets go for regime change.

Countless murdered in Saudi - thats OK, we buy their oil to heat our homes etc.

End of the day, if people think Iran is suddenly going to collapse over this then they are very much mistaken.

99% of Iran's population is doing absolute fuck all protesting - that tells you everything you need to know - its the West and anti-Iranian proxies fomenting trouble in Iran and its doomed to fail.

That's brilliant. It means a lot to Iranians in Iran to have support, more than we realize.
@Quackpot agree. Liz Truss is utterly useless and her words would be empty anyway 😒

Nobody is saying that what happens in Saudi and Yemen is ok. There is a lot of outcry over Saudi, including lots of public pressure on our government. There is huge campaigns from Oxfam and other charities about the never ending crises in Yemen.

This post is about the plight of the women of Iran, please could we not start a "but what about xyz"?

The fact that women are oppressed in other countries doesn't mean we shouldn't support change or revolution in Iran. Imagine if our suffragettes hadn't bothered with their protests just because things were worse for women in Persia or whatever it was called back then.

Feel free to start your own thread about the plight of oppressed women in countries all over the world, we should be discussing them all, but not on this thread, this is about supporting Iranian women and girls.

Wrote to my MP

"This post is about the plight of the women of Iran"

There is no plight of women in Iran (no less/more than any other country et al).

Thats the media byline to dupe people to word-salad sweet nothings that do nothing for Iranian women.

The facts on the ground are extremely different, as evidenced by the total lack of 99% of Iran's men and women populace who are NOT protesting.

What does that tell you?

Omg you really are a helpless soul, or hopeless soul. Are you blind??? Do you not see what has been going on? and NO things will never be the same again in Iran, thank goodness. I am on the phone everyday. Thanks to the brave girls, women, men and boys in Iran who have stood up.
I know people in Iran who work in news broadcasting, the TV industry and they've all spoken up things that need to be said. In all facets and walks of life people are standing to dictatorship and the feeling is unanimous. Enough! Even identifying and practicing Muslims hate this
@Randomword6 thank you! I did as well and will wait for my MP to make a statement and I have no doubt she will.

I've seen what's happening there.
I've watched the videos and shared them with others.

Such bravery from the women and men who've joined with them.

Do I think it will change things for women....no
I wish them all the luck in the world.

@eglantine7 - "Omg you really are a helpless soul, or hopeless soul."

Lets respect one anothers different viewpoints without levelling any name-related insults please.

I'm not saying we should agree, but doing things like that dont advance discussion. I haven't name-called you in anyway or mocked you and dont intend to either.

I can only ask you reciprocate that please :)

And you again completely deflect the undisputable fact that the majority of Iranian citizens are NOT protesting. Happy for anyone to disprove that for me if such evidence exists.

Thank you.

Have you not stopped to wonder why someone wouldn’t protest in a situation like this, could it have anything to do with the fact that you run the risk of getting brutally murdered?

So if you’re aim is to use the number of people protesting as evidence of Iranian opinions, I wouldn’t give it any further thought.

Survey on Iranian Opinions if you’re interested.

We have unsilenced voices here in ways Iranian women could only dream of right now, we need to use them.

Citizens will ALWAYS outnumber Govt forces.

Theres a reason why the majority of Iranians arent rising up - whether its because they cant be arsed, whether they see it as someone elses problem, whether they are happy with the status quo - you cannot sweep under the carpet that the protestors make up a pitifully small number.

The ruling elite are well aware of that - and is why this movement will eventually lose momentum.

It tells me to stop engaging with you because you've ignored everything I said barring one line, meaning you know I'm right, otherwise you would have had a constructive counter argument to my whole argument. Did every person in Britain stand up with our suffragettes? No. They didn't. Why? Answer that question and try to apply that reasoning as to why many people of Iran may choose NOT to protest with their fellow Iranians.

And that, @HelplessSoul , is the end of our conversation. I will reply to you no more.

Farewell.

What percentage of the UK protested for suffrage?

Sure, history totally agrees with you there, only protests that included the majority of the population have ever been successful, right?

Things won't be the same again
80 per cent of the population is under 30!
Most of their parents and grandparents hate the regime too!! I have no doubt there are elders stopping their children from protesting out of fear for their lives. But defiance takes many forms and people from all walks of life including footballers and celebrities in Iran making defiant statements. It does not always mean protesting in the streets against a sea of bullets and batons and brainwashed killers.

It's long overdue to push out this wretched regime out. Please continue supporting Iranians in Iran. They need your moral support as well as sanctions on the regime individuals.
I have no doubt this movement will keep going and will inspire girls and women in other countries mentioned to claim equal rights and respect and freedom to dress how they choose!

@Naunet "Sure, history totally agrees with you there, only protests that included the majority of the population have ever been successful, right?"

At no point did I claim that such protests resulted in success.

The Arab Spring of 10-11 years ago shows that populations CAN remove/topple their incumbent Govts - think its fair to say that what has come after that is not successful. I'm sure we can agree on that if nothing else.

@HelplessSoul lots of people are aware of this because iran experienced a revolution in 1979 way before the Arab countries and power fell into the wrong hands.
What is needed is for the hardliners to allow ( to be forced to) the reformers to have more say. But so far reformists have been silenced, put under house arrest and shoved out.
My brother has visited London yesterday he said he has seen police are rounding up protesters and letting them go round the corner. A good sign!
It's the bloody basiji in plain clothes who beat and kill and round up. It's time Iranian people went for these brainwashed, barbaric scumbags.
Please DONT say nothing will come of these brave protests.
Khamenei needs to be ousted.
Everyone else, please continue supporting and sending out messages of support.

Please DONT say nothing will come of these brave protests.
Khamenei needs to be ousted.

Right, so he gets ousted (and anyone else) - what then?

Look no further than neighbouring Iraq to see the chaos since Saddam was removed. Thats what will happen in Iran too. Or it will go the way of Egypt when Morsi was "elected", but then ousted because the military didnt like him and now a new dictator in Sisi is in place.

A month on, what have the protests achieved, except more people being killed?

The evidence on the ground is very clear even if you choose to ignore it - the majority of Iran is NOT protesting and no, nothing will come of these protests.

We can revisit this thread in six months or a year and see who was right....