Iranian women, Jamenei’s endless nightmare

For the past three months, a series of crimes related to the poisoning of female students has provoked a psychosis in Iran. While many observers continue to question the perpetrators of this heinous and shameful crime, all agree on its organised nature. In its edition of 2 March 2023, the daily Sharq summed up the common thinking perfectly: "Such a complex and large-scale operation, involving dozens of women's high schools in different cities, cannot be the work of a single person. The preparation of the toxic substance, its embedding to conceal it, its diffusion in the environment, the action in different cities, etc. are the elements on which one must base the conclusion that the poisoning of the girls is an organised operation".

At present, there is no doubt that the perpetrators of these acts have the support of the government. Actively or passively. If it were otherwise, the state would have reacted differently. Certainly, as the newspaper Armané-Melli states in its edition of 2 March 2023, we can admit "that the first scenes in the schools, which occurred for the first time, were hidden from the sharp eyes of the security cameras and the city", but from the moment things happened again, how can we justify the inaction of the police and the country's justice system? Let us not forget that the walls of Iranian cities are riddled with "digital devices and security cameras that prevent the slightest concealment".

The fact is that the Supreme Leader has a lingering grudge. He seeks revenge and intimidation for Iran's girls, the real engine of the ongoing revolution. According to state media, the aim of the poisoners is to close girls' schools. A goal perfectly in line with the medieval thinking of the ruling mullahs and their supreme leader? Or how to reconcile the response to a bloated ego thirsty for revenge and counter-revolutionary political strategy. Machiavellian!

From the first, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, to the last, 60-year-old Zarbibi Ismailzehi in Zahedan, 83 women have fallen for freedom in Iran's current uprising. And many more have been detained or subjected to atrocious assaults, blindfolded and martyred under torture. They have shown the true face of Iranian women and it is because of their daily struggle and heroism that this popular uprising has captivated the world.

We see our humanity in Iranian women. 

Until recently, the role of the women executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in the dreaded Evin and Gohardasht prisons was kept secret. The same was true of Rouhollah Khomeini's 100 torture chambers. But today, we look straight into the lens at the photo of Commander Sara, hanging by her feet from a tree in the mountains of Islamshahr[ii], with a dagger from Khomeini's guards through her heart. Commander Sara was a woman who mocked the hegemony of Khomeini's army. For too many years, these bloodsheds remained camouflaged under the heavy shadow of silence and the famous "appeasement policy" towards Iranian women.

Fortunately, today the world is opening its eyes.

So much so that the Canadian foreign minister rightly declared: "We see our humanity in Iranian women", while one magazine headlined: "It is a rebellion inspired by the incredible courage of women". This courage, which inspires the human world, can provoke storms. And we can already see the day when Iranian women will drive the misogynist regime of the mullahs back into the dark and icy abyss of history for all eternity.

This year's International Women's Rights Day has taken on special credibility and lustre because of the rise and heroism of Iranian women in the uprising to overthrow the mullahs' regime. All these women are giving birth to the hope of a new world, a new truth, which they are unfolding before our eyes; their leading role in determining the destiny of all human society. Less than a century ago, in France, suffragettes were fighting for the right to vote; today, in Iran and around the world, they are fighting to change a world of discrimination into a world of freedom, justice and equality.

Of the 1,776 schools whose students joined the uprisings, 1,186 were women's schools, and in the current uprising, female students have been at the forefront of most universities. Nasrin Qadri, one of the daughters of the Marivan people, a doctor of philosophy, wrote before her martyrdom: "Let us not be afraid of death, we have lived it". Many of them paid a heavy price under torture, like Atefeh Noami in Karaj or Aida Rostami, a brave humanitarian doctor who treated wounded insurgents in Tehran.

Like the great French Revolution, freedom in Iran requires a revolution, and revolution exacts a high price.

Today's Iranian revolution pits two irreconcilable philosophies; a mixed, secular Popular Front against a misogynistic religious regime. This revolution and its associated movement reject all forms of dictatorship and are taking steps to establish a democratic republic. The Iranian rebel, with her courage and bravery, has become a symbol of freedom and, at the same time, an endless nightmare for Ali Khamenei. All that is missing is a painting by Eugène Delacroix...

Like the great French Revolution, freedom in Iran requires a revolution, and revolution exacts a high price. In this uprising, Iranian women have not only rejected a compulsory hijab, but also a compulsory government and any form of dictatorship, be it a shah or an ayatollah. So the main problem is coercion and dictatorship, where there is no room for free choice. But men and women are defined by their choices, by their free will.

Men and women are defined by their choices, by free will.

Let us make no mistake. It is a true democratic revolution that is taking place today in Iran. The young women rebels, from Tehran to Zahedan, are determined. With or without hijab, they are leading the revolution. While human rights are also women's rights, women's leadership is the guarantee of democracy and equality. As long as women's participation in political leadership is not possible, it will be impossible to move towards equality.

Hamid Enayat
Writer
Paris-based political scientist and Iran expert