Media coverage of protests in Iran has been lacking these past few years, until recently. What caused this sudden surge? The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Amini was killed in an Iranian re-education camp less than two weeks after she was arrested for violating Iran’s strict modesty policies for women. This tragedy shook the youth of Iran and pushed them to protest, not just for Amini, but for the thousands of women that experience this kind of harassment and dehumanization every day. The protests have been continuing for over a week now, only to be responded to by the Iranian government with violence and closed minds. The protestors demand to give women the freedom to live and plead for the removal of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Although these protests have recently become a shock for the American news, Iranian-Americans have been clued into the rebellious tendencies of the Iranian people for years now. To put it very bluntly, the Iranian people are not happy with the current Islamic regime in place. The dictatorship in Iran abuses its power and undermines its people, constantly rigging elections, massacring protestors, and implementing strict modesty rules. It’s important to note that these rules are not a part of Iran’s deep and culturally flourishing history, and were not in place until after the revolution. The misogyny and conservatism that resides in Iran is not present in its people but is rather forced upon them by the Ayatollah and the rest of the regime. America continues to turn its head to the injustice Iranians face even though the American government played a big part in the start of the revolution with their greediness for oil.Â
This topic is specifically important to me as an Iranian woman, especially because the ideals and actions of the current Islamic regime in Iran have directly caused discrimination and stereotyping of Iranian people in America. Iranian women are cutting their hair, screaming Femme vie Liberte (women, life, liberty), and are no longer settling for being overlooked by the western world.