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If there is one request from the women, the young people and all those taking to the streets against the Iranian regime, this is the one. “Talk about us, don’t let silence settle in with the repression”.
It’s been over fifteen days already that Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a young woman of 22 years died from the blows of the Iranian forces, including those of the morality brigade who had arrested her for a strand of hair not covered by her veil. Over ten days now that this murder has served as a catalyst to a political rebellion against the Mollahs’ regime, with women, young and less young, in the front ranks.
All of the protests of that last years, dispersed and harshly repressed found here a reason to join up in the street.
Even if in Iran, there does not exist outside the regime a strongly organized political opposition, institutional and visible, even if the contradictions only find voice in manipulated elections whose candidates belong to the caste known as as that of the 1979 revolution, between “hardliners” and “reformists”, a movement of rebellion finds its relays today in all social classes and in the regions.
Oppressed minorities (Kurds in particular), victims of economic sanctions that have literally pushed down the middle class, an important number of the educated young who can find no future in this padlocked society, youths, women and men, who had opened gaps under the former ’reformist’ presidency, lower classes disappointed by the ’promises’ of a better life made by the current president, intelligentsia that played with the regime’s contradictions, all of them find themselves in this rebellion of “the strand of hair that showed”. This dysfunctional regime has nothing to offer other than repression.
This same revolt when it can still find the means to express itself toward the outside world, shows a sharp awareness of many about what has occurred during the decade, within Iran itself, but mostly in the Arab countries. The failure and the counter-revolutions and the active participation in these of the Iranian regime itself, is in everyone’s mind. The destructions and the hundreds of thousands of deaths, all so that tyrants could still be in power, and even be reinforced at times, this awareness has left its mark on the young and informed generations, just as the bloody revolution of 1979 had done for older generations.
Everything is thus to be built in this protest which, for the moment, is still holding forth in the street and on rooftops, against a regime that has always chosen unbridled force against revolts.
Calls to strikes have been made, in higher education, in order to demand the liberation of those imprisoned, in the energy sector, in order to weigh in favor of a better standard of living, in public transportation in Teheran. This will be test for the movement which, as a reminder, can only maintain its organization through social networks the regime is constantly shutting down, and through the relationships among the young or the minorities.
Indeed, the question of internet is of top importance, and the regime is aware of its reach and of the use made of this weapon, both as a means to circulate information in the revolt, into all corners of Iran and toward the outside, and the publication across the world of disturbing images of the repression, or of the movement producing liberating images.
Officially, the number of dead has reached 41 and more than 2000 arrests have been made. The journalists who were covering the event are in prison for the most part. We can multiply these figures in all confidence in order to approach a certain level of truth.
Images of assassination by bullets of women in the street, show that this is not about maintaining extreme order, but a deliberate attack meant to kill, aimed against women. Several young women who were figureheads at the beginning of the movement were savagely killed on purpose.
We know that such a revolt facing such an oppressive regime resting on a caste of loyal ones cannot go on counting its deads and its arrests every day, and that there will necessarily be pauses or withdrawals. The regime knows this also, blocking information, internally and that directed outward.
This regime is also counting on the re-negotiation that is more or less ongoing concerning the Iranian nuclear treaty, which would alleviate the sanctions, especially since Iran is a gas producing power, a highly disputed commodity. France, like the others, is on the ranks with Total and already in the process of negotiating a contract. The Mollahs keep a close watch on Western governments’ reactions which are all doing the minimum diplomatically. France even offered up a most visible police charge in front of the Iranian embassy, against a demonstration of support. London did the same.
Thus, in order not to be forgotten, Iranians can only rely on international public opinions, social and political relays, artists, sports figures, any person having an audience against an ongoing real-politik in Ukraine and its consequences on energy supplies. Women’s rights are already the fifth wheel of the charriot so, just think, human rights only matter in the introductory sentence of the speech.
This is why any response to the Iranian demands to break the silence is welcome, especially whenit’s in accord with their struggle.
Our friend Zehra Doğan and those surrounding her in Berlin thus decided to react symbolically in front of the Iranian embassy a few days ago.
Zehra, a Kurdish artists and journalist, was persecuted by the Turkish regime; she used menstrual blood in prison as a means of protest. This taboo, just like that of hair met with strong opposition from the jailers.
Thus, using it against this power of the taboo in current Iran and the prison it represents for women, as well as expressing her Kurdish solidarity against Jina Amini’s massacre, became an absolute necessity for Zehra.
Here is a video excerpt of this support intervention which you can relay.
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Kedistan also participated in other video initiatives.
Nothing is futile, nothing is useless, insofar as a gesture, an action, a word, a collective action is relayed and meant to render their struggle visible while demonstrating support for its meaning, so long as it is not an instrumentalization for personal benefit, be it by islamophobes or professionals o ego well on display.
It is false to consider we are powerless to help the revolt of women in Iran. Every initiative made visible and relayed is an answer to the cry of Iranian “don’t leave us alone”.
By Gianluca Costantini on channeldraw.org
Obviously this form of minimal support, also applies to all women’s struggles , such as those in Afghanistan, to name only them.
Illustration : Gianluca Costantini
Translation from French by Renée Lucie Bourges
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