Religion is a Mental Illness

And finally, New Rule: if you're out protesting for a couple of hours wearing this...

... you have to go all the way and spend an afternoon running errands wearing one of these.

You can't side with the people who ruthlessly oppress women without at least getting a taste of what you're supporting.

Well, now that summer is here and the Hamas-backing college protesters have dispersed back to their summer internships at Goldman Sachs, I thought it might be a good time to say this: I actually admire your youthful idealism, and our world would be poorer without it. Much like your parents who just wasted 300 grand on that ignorance factory you call a college.

Not that I think it's your fault, being this poorly educated and morally confused. That takes a village. Shitty schools, overindulgent parents, social media, that priest who rubbed lotion on you.

But three cheers to you for at least having the impulse to seek a cause in something bigger than yourself. It's just that the one you picked, you missed the boat by a fucking mile.

But here's the good news. You want a cause? Cuz I totally got one for you. Apartheid. Yeah, apartheid, the thing you've been shouting about with Israel for months. Never mind that Israeli Arabs are actually full citizens. You learned that word from a 2 Chainz song and discovered that protesting South Africa's apartheid in the 80s was a righteous cause, and so it was. To this day, when celebrities are asked, who is the person they most admire, one name is always the safest choice.

So, naturally, when you heard that Israel was an apartheid state it gave you such a boner you literally pitched a tent.

You knew how wrong it was when tens of millions of South Africans had been treated like second class citizens just because of their race.

But here's the thing. Today, right now, hundreds of millions of women are treated worse than second class citizens. When you mandate that one category of human beings don't even have the right to show their face, that's apartheid. And it goes on in a lot of countries.

For the last couple years, women in Iran have been saying, "take this hijab and shove it." Because in 2022, a young woman named Mahsa Amini was arrested for wearing her mandatory hijab incorrectly and then died in police custody. And now security forces have killed over 500 people protesting her death and this obvious human rights violation. How about defunding those police?

Amnesty International says that, "Iranian authorities are waging a war on women that subjects them to constant surveillance beatings sexual violence and detention." What P. Diddy calls a hotel stay.

In Iran, MeToo isn't a movement, it's what a woman says when another woman says, my life sucks.

Yasmine Muhammad is a human rights activist who got married off to a Muslim man with fundamentalist views about women not exactly uncommon in the Muslim world. He forced her to wear the niqab all the time, including once beating her because she took her hijab off at home, because the apartment had a window through which people might see in. And this was in Vancouver.

Here's what Yasmine said about veiling.

"It just suppresses your humanity entirely. It's like a portable sensory deprivation chamber and you are no longer connected to humanity. You can't see properly. You can't hear properly. You can't speak properly. People can't see you. You can only see them. Just little things. Passing people on the street and just making eye contact and smiling, that's gone. You're no longer part of this world, and so you very quickly just shrivel up into nothing under there."

And that's my answer when someone says "Islamophobe."

Really, feminists? Come on, there's got to be a happy medium between a husband making his wife wear this, and a husband making his wife wear this.

I know 1619 was bad, but this is happening right now, right under your nose rings. And it's not just the clothes. 15 countries in the Middle East, including Gaza, have laws that require women to obey their husbands. Laws. Not just Harrison Butker's opinion.

And those societies also have guardianship laws, which means a woman needs permission from her husband to work, to travel, to leave the house, to go to school, to get medical attention. Nothing?

Honor killings, where women are murdered by their own fathers and-or brothers happen so frequently they can't even have an accurate account of how many.

In 59 countries, there are no laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, and many have no laws against domestic violence or spousal rape. 20 countries have marry-your-rapist laws. Multiple societies have laws about what jobs women can and can't do. Make a Barbie movie about that. 30 countries practice female genital mutilation, and 650 million women alive today were married as children.

Kids, if you really want to change the world and not just tie up Monday morning traffic, this is the apartheid that desperately needs your attention. Gender apartheid. This is what should be the social justice issue of your time. How about, from the river to the sea, every woman shall be free?

But in reality, it's not an issue at all. For one reason: the people who are doing it aren't white. I hate to have to be the one to break it to you kids, but non-white people can do bad things too. Now, white on black racism certainly has been of one of history's most horrific scourges. But also, it's true that in today's world being non-white means you can get away with murder.

So good on you kids for following your instinct to protest social injustice. Just remember, when it comes to finding a cause, pulling your head out of your ass is an important rite of passage.

Fireworks and dancing as Iranians defiantly celebrate Raisi’s death

Jubilant scenes posted online while regime broadcasts footage of mourning after president killed in helicopter crash

The Telegraph

Defiant acts of celebration broke out in Iran as state television broadcasted footage of mourning following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

Fireworks were set off in several cities on Monday night and some people posted videos of themselves dancing in the streets early on Tuesday.

However, the open displays of celebration were limited as dissent is often met with a strict crackdown by the hardline regime.

In one video showing fireworks, a woman’s voice can be heard saying: “People are rejoicing at the downfall of Raisi.”

“People are celebrating and I congratulate the president’s death,” said another man over another clip. “I hope the rest of them die too.”

People in the capital Tehran told The Telegraph there was a heavy presence of armed security forces in several neighbourhoods.

“I went up to the roof last night, and there were fireworks in several parts of the city,” a resident of Karaj, near the capital Tehran, said.

“I also heard people chanting ‘death to the dictator’ somewhere close by,” he added.

Many Iranians celebrated in secret and some people told the Telegraph they stayed awake waiting for “good news to come out of the mountains”.

“I was on my phone all night and when I finally saw the news, I jumped from bed and started dancing,” a man in Tehran said.

“I went to a nearby shop, and it was incredible. The shopkeeper, whom I know, gave me a free cigarette and said, ‘Let’s hope for more crashes like this’,” he said.

The mother of a Kurdish prisoner executed earlier this year posted a video of herself dancing upon hearing the news of Raisi’s death.

A shopkeeper in central Isfahan said he experienced a surge in selling sweets on Monday as people “keep coming to celebrate”.

“It’s very strange and good, people come and congratulate me for the death of Raisi,” he said. “It’s been a long time since I saw something like this.”

“Many are hiding their happiness because they are afraid of government spies and worried about the subsequent consequences,” he added.

On Monday afternoon, state TV continued to broadcast scenes of mourning and tearful individuals.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a crying man. “I’m shocked, and I hope God helps people in these grieving times,” said another.

“He lost his life while serving the nation, which made me very sad,” said a man in a mosque where people had gathered to mourn. “He held a special place in people’s hearts.”

Mourning songs and live footage of memorials played continuously on several state channels.

Many changed their logos to black and aired tributes about how “beloved and close to the people the martyred president” was, highlighting that he lost his life on the “flight of service”.

“The president set new benchmarks for good governance, and we hope his legacy continues,” a presenter said. “He accomplished significant feats and would have achieved even more if given more time.”

“He was a soldier of the Supreme Leader, and anyone who respected the Supreme Leader respected him as well. He was dedicated to the development of Iran,” an analyst said on state TV.

Iran’s president and his foreign minister were confirmed dead after the helicopter they were travelling in crashed in a mountainous region during bad weather on Sunday evening.

Rescuers reached the wreckage early Monday morning after a desperate search mission hampered by rain, fog and snow.

Mr Raisi won Iran’s closely stage-managed 2021 presidential election, a vote marked by the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.

His victory brought all branches of power under the control of hardliners, after eight years in which the presidency had been held by Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who entered into a nuclear deal with Washington.

“These three years of Raisi were like a nightmare,” said a woman in her late 20s in northwestern Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown.

“I do not expect any big change to happen now, at least we can hope,” she added.

Under the code name “Noor” or “light” in Farsi, the Islamic Republic has intensified a clampdown on anyone violating its draconian female dress codes.

Iran Ramps Up Executions, Averaging One Every Five Hours

Over the course of two weeks, from April 16 to April 30, the Iranian government executed 63 individuals, averaging one execution every five

Iran International

Over the course of two weeks, from April 16 to April 30, the Iranian government executed 63 individuals, averaging one execution every five hours, continuing a trend that began last year.

The data presented by the Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO), headquartered in Norway, highlights a broader pattern of capital punishment in Iran.

Since the beginning of 2024, 171 people have been executed across various prisons in the country.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of IHRNGO, criticized the international community's silence on the issue, stating, "In the last two weeks, the Islamic Republic has executed one person every five hours without any political cost. States that adhere to human rights and have diplomatic relations with Iran must react to the wave of executions in Iran. Silence paves the way for more executions."

The organization's latest figures indicate that at least 71 people were executed in 24 different Iranian prisons during April alone, with 63 of the executions occurring in the latter half of the month. Out of these, 44 were executed for drug-related offenses, 26 faced 'qisas' (retribution-in-kind) for murder, and one for rape.

The surge in executions follows the onset of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, after which the Iranian government has significantly increased the pace of carrying out death penalties. In 2023 alone, the country saw at least 834 executions.

An April press release from 82 Iranian and international human rights organizations pointed out that over half of the executions in 2023 involved individuals arrested on drug-related charges. The statement emphasized the low cost of the drug-related executions to the government, signaling a potentially punitive approach towards non-violent offenses.

A month ago, Raisi, the Butcher of Tehran, launched an unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel to murder thousands of innocent Israelis. Deliberately. The blood of thousands of innocent Iranians on his hands. Women, members of the LGBTQ community, peaceful protesters and many, many others. He is responsible for butchering thousands around the globe. Thousands.

This is who the Security Council dedicates a moment of silence to? A terrorist? A man who murdered, oppressed and imprisoned so many? How can it be that your list of moral priorities is so distorted?

This Council, which has done nothing, nothing to advance the release of our hostages commemorates the man responsible for their suffering.

What's next? Will the Council hold a moment of silence for bin Laden? Will there be a vigil for Hitler?

World must listen to the Iranian people

What makes a successful revolution? The answer is harder than it seems. For a revolution to succeed, it needs to make things better for peop

Arab News

What makes a successful revolution? The answer is harder than it seems. For a revolution to succeed, it needs to make things better for people than before. But most revolutions are disastrous. If revolutionaries fail, they leave a legacy of destruction and mistrust. If they win, they create new destruction and mistrust. In both cases, there is no end to oppression — which is often the war cry of the revolutionary elite. Misery simply returns in a different mask.

There is not a single example to the contrary in the history of the modern Arab state system. From Bakr Sidqi in 1936 through Rashid Ali Al-Gailani in 1941 and Husni Al-Zaim in 1949 to the Free Officers in Egypt, the destruction of the monarchy in Iraq, the bloody return of the Ba’ath in both Iraq and Syria, Libya in 1969 or Sudan a generation later, every military coup led to violent repression, sinister surveillance, economic incompetence and loss of liberty. These were not political but violently coercive systems, where politics was at best a charade.

And many people remember with regret what they lost. My older Iraqi friends look back with nostalgia to the monarchical period before 1958. Older Egyptians remember when the Wafd, Young Egypt or the Sa’adists under the monarchy actually meant something politically, in their shared struggle against British colonial control. For younger people, the Arab Spring promised to make politics meaningful again, but ended in the same way. Disappointed hopes and dashed dreams.

There are only three revolutions in the modern Middle East that succeeded in building and then sustaining a new political dispensation — and none were Arab: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s abolition of the Ottoman caliphate in 1924, Reza Shah Pahlavi’s overthrow of the Qajars in 1925 and Ayatollah Khomeini’s expulsion of Reza Shah’s son in 1979. Both Ataturk and the Pahlavis did good things, modernizing education, agriculture and the economy and increasing social freedoms. Ataturk’s Turkey survives: It was built on solid foundations. Pahlavi’s Iran does not. And now it looks as if its successor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Khomeini declared to be a light to the nations, the champion of the suffering masses and a beacon of righteousness, has come to the end of its own tether.

The sustained protests inside Iran, about which I have written before, show no signs of dying down. They are not confined to one class, one ethnicity, one gender or one region. They cover the country from the Kurdish northwest to the Baloch southeast. Not everyone has joined in, of course. There have been flickers in the bazaars (as we currently see) and among oil workers, but not so far the sustained strikes we saw in 1978.

People are worried, as they always are, about their families, their livelihoods, their futures. But young people in particular are angry. They are also fearless — or perhaps more accurately they have managed to overcome their fear. And they are fed up with a country that promises them nothing but isolation, the grim grind of survival, no fun and continuous surveillance in the interests of — what exactly? The promise of a savior at the end of time or the privileges of a hypocritical elite, who have enriched themselves and their children (as anyone can see through their vainglorious postings on social media) while preaching a purist virtue in which fewer and fewer Iranians actually believe?

Many of the brightest and best — maybe 3 million since 1979 — have voted with their feet and left. But most people cannot and probably do not want to. Why should they? The country, after all, belongs as much to them as to the old men of the Guidance Council or the grim-faced thugs of the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard, who threaten them with arrest, torture and death for daring to demand the right to choose.

The regime seems rattled. It has not been able to suppress the protests this time as easily as it has in the past. As I write, it has reportedly killed more than 500 of its own citizens, including 70 children and 29 women, and arrested 19,000 others, including one of Iran’s most prominent actresses. It has charged 36 people with capital crimes, already sentenced a handful to death in sham trials, executed several — after savage torture — and promised to execute many more. When Iran’s footballers in Qatar failed during their first match at the World Cup to sing the national anthem (itself a curious thing for an Islamist regime to have), it made sure they sang it during the next match. It has intimidated other sports stars and entertainers who have sought to speak out.

But this time it cannot intimidate everyone. It has tried to claim that the problem is Kurdish separatism, Daesh or the hidden hand of the US and Israel. Schoolchildren have mocked the claims. It has fired missiles into northern Iraq to try to provoke Kurdish opposition movements into a violent response that might justify its actions. It has failed — at least so far.

Leaked recordings of internal discussions, intelligence analysis and public criticism from members of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s own family, plus former President Mohammed Khatami and other senior figures, suggest the regime is now not simply puzzled but also uncertain. Recent reports that it might liberalize the law on female head coverings and withdraw the Gasht-e Ershad — the so-called morality police — from the streets seem to be misinformation, deliberate or not. Khamenei cannot afford to back down on this central pillar of the regime’s legitimacy, though he may be willing to use promises that he can later break in order to divide the opposition.

And the protesters are indeed not unified. This has been a feature of popular protests over the last decade in the wider region. Protests are often deliberately decentered to avoid leaders becoming an easy target. That makes it hard to see how the protesters can move to the next level — which is to offer a convincing alternative to the present system, however awful it might be.

This — plus the regime’s record of brutal repression and a widespread and reasonable fear of civil conflict — suggests that the overthrow of that system is still a very long way off. Iranians who want something better — and that is almost certainly a large majority — know they are not alone. Many have lost their fear. When young men in the streets are tipping the turbans off the heads of clerics, you also know that they have lost respect for their clerical rulers. And these rulers have lost what legitimacy they still had in the eyes of many Iranians.

Still, this is not 1978 — even if the 40-day cycle of funeral, mourning, funeral, mourning can seem similar. Khamenei is not leaving, as the shah left. And the regime’s praetorian security forces are larger, more indoctrinated and more vicious than anything at the shah’s disposal. They are a minority. But they are armed and brutal. They also feel that they have succeeded in expanding Iran’s power across the region at the expense of its enemies. They have accelerated their nuclear enrichment activities. They just need to keep the home front quiet. That is becoming more difficult.

The real crux will come when the Islamic Republic is forced to choose a successor to Khamenei. If that successor can promise genuine change for the better, no one will want revolution. If he can only promise more repression, something will have to give. As an Iranian friend recently remarked to me, the ship of state remains afloat but fatigue has set in.

There is little that outsiders can do to shape events. This is something Iranians themselves must do. But we need to ensure that we pay attention. Too often we watch fascinated as protests erupt and then, within weeks, we move on to other things. What happens inside Iran will dictate the future of the region more than anything else.

We need to keep sustained pressure on the regime. The nuclear file is doubtless important. But more important is stopping Iran’s ability to undermine and control its neighbors. We need constantly to highlight the regime’s crimes in international forums: Kicking Iran off the UN's Commission on the Status of Women and commissioning a UN fact-finding investigation into human rights abuses is a good start. But we need more. We should target the regime’s aggressive cyber and surveillance capabilities and respond in kind. Where we can, we should close down its overseas propaganda institutions. We should not host its apologists. We need to say explicitly that we would welcome anything that made Iran a more normal nation.

And we need to ensure we pay attention to what Iranians themselves tell us — both inside and outside the country — and not be seduced by those interest groups that pose as reformers but act as Khamenei’s stooges. This will be a game that goes into extra time. We need to make sure we are match fit.

Iran’s Theocrats’ Worst Nightmare is Coming True — Queer Majority

For 40 years, the Iranian regime has ruled with divide and conquer. Now Iranians are united.

Queer Majority

I'm not in the mood to talk about the Nobel Prize. https://t.co/8aq9SDhFRT

pic.twitter.com/IXIMuEEy6k

زیبایی ببینید: مردها شعار میدن زن، زندگی، آزادی زنان جواب میدن مرد، میهن، آبادی. امروز دانشگاه علوم پزشکی شیراز#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/1tdp3Yqm7Q

"Be with the people, one hand and one form with the rest."

Iran jails couple in viral dancing video: Activists

PARIS: An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of over 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran’s main landma

Arab News

PARIS: An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of over 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists said on Tuesday.

Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, had been arrested in early November after a video went viral of them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran.

Haghighi did not wear a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic’s strict rules for women, while women are also not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.

A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as bans on using the Internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.

The couple, who already had a following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of “encouraging corruption and public prostitution” as well as “gathering with the intention of disrupting national security,” it added.

HRANA cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings while attempts to secure their release on bail have been rejected.

It said Haghighi is now in the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists.

Iranian authorities have clamped down severely on all forms of dissent since the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules, sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.

At least 14,000 people have been arrested, according to the United Nations, ranging from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets.

The couple’s video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi at one moment lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind.

One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the gigantic and futuristic Azadi (Freedom) Tower is a place of huge sensitivity.

It opened under the rule of the last shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the early 1970s when it was known as the Shahyad (In Memory of the Shah) Tower.

It was renamed after the shah was ousted in 1979 with the creation of the Islamic republic. Its architect, a member of the Bahai faith which is not recognized in today’s Iran, now lives in exile.

"Baraye..." (Persian: برای..., meaning "For..." or "Because of...") is a 2022 protest song by Shervin Hajipour, inspired by the death of Mahsa Amini and its aftermath.

After the death of Mahsa Amini and the start of the protests, an Internet meme was spread through the social media (and Twitter in particular), by which (through phrases starting with the word "for") the users explained their personal reasons for protesting and wishing for regime change in Iran.

Trying to capture the essence of these sentiments, Hajipour wrote each verse of the lyrics based on a separate tweet. The resulting text touches upon several topics in need of change, including: low life satisfaction, women's rights, children's rights, the rights of refugees, animals rights, environmental concerns, recession and poverty, theocracy and outdated social and religious taboos, militarism and political corruption, local corruption, freedom of speech, and the government's hostility against other countries.

On 29 September 2022 Hajipour was arrested for the song "Baraye". He was forced to remove the song from his social media platforms by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's security agents shortly after his arrest.

For dancing in the streets freely

For our fear of kissing our loved ones

For my sister, your sister, our sisters

For the renewal of the rusted minds

For embarrassed fathers with empty hands

For the sigh over an ordinary life

For the child of labor and his dreams

For this dictatorial economy

For this polluted air

For “Valiasr”street and it’s worn trees

For the extinction of Persian cheetahs

For the murdered innocent street dogs

For all the unstoppable tears

For the image of repeating this moment

For the smiling faces

For the students and their future

For this compulsory heaven

For elites in prison

For the Afghan kids

For all these non-repetitive “For’s”

For all these meaningless slogans

For all these collapsed buildings

For the feeling of peace

For sunrise after long dark nights

For the sedative and insomnia pills

For man, motherland, prosperity

For the girl who wished to be born as a boy

For woman, life, freedom

For freedom

For freedom

For freedom

For Western Islamists, Not Wearing Hijab Worse than Killing Protesters in Iran

islamism.news|Martha Lee

As women in Iran have continued to remove and burn their hijabs in protest against the regime that killed 23-year-old Mahsa Amini in September, Western Islamists have been more outraged about the protesters taking off their hijabs than they are about the death of Amini in police custody. They also seem indifferent to the deaths of more than 300 protesters in the streets of Iran since mid-September. Such reactions are a reminder that the desire to impose hijab on women is evidently not limited to Islamic theocracies, but is also found in Muslim communities in the West.

Well-known Islamist Roshan Salih denounced the women as “Western stooges.” Salih, who runs the British Islamist publication 5 Pillars, was among the most aggressive detractors of the protesters, claiming that the Iranian women opposing the regime were “insulting Islam” and that “Muslims all over the world are looking at [them] in disgust.”

Salih’s 5 Pillars published a series of op-eds on the hijab by Muslim women. One piece, written by Anjum Anwar, was titled “Message to liberals: I do not need rescuing from my hijab.” Another took a more Islamist perspective, claiming that “[hijab-wearing women] are the flag bearers of Islam” and warning women who burned their hijab that they had also burned “the bridges that will lead them to the submission of desires in place of their Lord.” In a third op-ed, activist Shabnam Kulsoom asserted that “Muslim women who disrespect hijab should not be “celebrated” and described the hijab as a “a magnet for attracting respect and repelling disrespect.”

Islamist religious figures assented. Prominent Canadian imam Younus Kathrada criticized as “completely false” the idea that no one could tell someone else how to dress. Kathrada accused certain hijab-wearing women, who support the right of other women not to wear it, of sounding “like the rhetoric of the modernist ‘scholars’ who support the rights of people who want to commit sodomy and live contrary to the [nature] God created us upon.”

Youssef Soussi, a Californian Islamist imam, explained that “the so-called [Muslim woman] who burns a veil/hijab in this [world] may very well be the reason why she burns in Hell in the [next world].” American Islamist Ismael Royer argued that the protests were evidence of “mental self-colonization.” Meanwhile in London, the director of the Islamic Centre of England accused the protesters of being “soldiers of Satan.”

Hardline Islamist Daniel Haqiqatjou, who runs the Islamist publication Muslim Skeptic, declared that not “mandating hijab is a crime against humanity” and claimed that “Islam protects” the “fundamental human right” of having a “modest public space free from promiscuity and harassment by the inappropriately dressed.”

Haqiqatjou’s publication, Muslim Skeptic, published an op-ed on the “Hijab Burnings in Iran and the Liberal Muslim’s Hatred for Islam.” The writer condemned liberal Muslims’ “colonised worldview” as “the biggest hurdle” to the Muslim community’s “attainment of the leadership of the world.” A couple of weeks prior to the protests, Muslim Skeptic’s regular contributor Bheria had penned a piece on “the Inevitable Failure of Political Shi’ism: The Secularization of Iran.”

As for the Council on Arab-American Relations (CAIR), it published an op-ed warning that supporting women who remove their hijab but not those who put it on “translates into Islamophobia that risks perpetuating more violence against girls and women.”

Others were busy attacking Muslim minority sects. Writer Talha Abdulrazaq, infuriated by Ismaili professor Khalil Andani’s stating that there is no consensus that hijab is mandatory, accused Ismailis of “thinking it’s ok to burn down mosques” and concluded that “hijab burning is nothing to [Ismailis] by comparison.” Ismailis are a Shia sect of Islam that embraces an inward understanding of the religion and is reputed for its support of women’s rights. The 48th Ismaili leader completely abolished the hijab for Ismaili women while encouraging their education.

Western Islamists are, of course, not in a position to legally impose the hijab on Muslim women but their reactions leave little doubt that they would gladly do so. Many Muslim communities in the West continue to be dominated by hardline religious figures who give women the ‘choice’ to wear the hijab or be ostracized and go to hell.

Student Protest Movement In Iran Shows Defeat Of Regime Ideology

An expert says antigovernment protests and strikes at Iran’s universities and schools show the regime's failure to instill its ideology in over four decades.

www.iranintl.com

An expert says antigovernment protests and strikes at Iran’s universities and schools show the regime's failure to instill its ideology in over four decades.

Azadeh Davachi, a researcher at, in an interview with Iran International November 6 said acts of protest and slogans by students since September have refuted the ideology the Islamic Republic attempted to teach youngsters throughout 43 years of its existence.

“What the Islamic Republic wanted to inculcate in students’ minds through the schoolbooks have resulted exactly in the opposite. Students remove headscarves and tear down the photos of regime leaders in classrooms. Despite so much crackdown and threats, girls enter school without hijab, chant slogans, record it using cell phones and publish the videos on social media. This means a heavy defeat of the Islamic Republic’s ideology,” underlined the pundit.

Schoolchildren in Iran kept up with daily protests on Sunday chanting slogans and staging strikes to show anger at government crackdown against older protesters.

University students insist they will go to campuses despite all the restrictions imposed but will stage strikes there and not attend classes.

Students at almost all universities in Tehran as well as in some other cities have called for sit-ins and strikes demanding the immediate release of their peers detained earlier.

Security forces have beefed up measures in recent days at campuses to search students when they enter and take away their mobile phones not to let them record videos.

Many students have been arrested since the beginning of anti-regime protests in September. Some are kidnapped by security forces, and often nobody knows their whereabout for days.

In an appalling move, Tehran University of Arts has announced that all drama graduate students will be suspended and cannot take the final exams.

However, students emphasize that they will not stop their strikes until their demands are met. Several professors have also announced that they will refuse to teach until the dismissal of students is canceled and they return to classes.

Davachi believes that the perseverance of students in holding strikes and protests 50 days into the nationwide demonstrations is of great significance, as social and civic movements in Iran have always depended on student movements.

This researcher at Deakin University of Melbourne told Iran International that an important factor differentiating this movement with previous ones is that the slogans are more radical at universities and schools.

“Student actions can strengthen other civic movements and reinforce the popular protest movement. Students’ slogans this time is very similar to those of people on the streets. Therefore, students and older protesters are somehow supporting each other,” added Davachi.

She went on to say that the demands made by students is what the youths want as they are a large group among Iran’s population.

She further noted that the clerical rulers assumed they have raised a new generation at schools who are very committed to their values, but the recent events at universities and schools proved exactly the contrary.

Women play a very significant role in the protest movement, she reiterated, saying “if the uprising of the nation against the regime proves victorious, women will not let their demands be marginalized like in the 1979 revolution and they will play a very crucial role in a free Iran.”

Iranian Lawmakers Urge Judiciary To Sentence Protesters To Death

A group of 227 parliament members in Iran has called on the Judiciary to issue death sentences for people arrested during the ongoing antigovernment protests.

www.iranintl.com

A group of 227 parliament members in Iran has called on the Judiciary to issue death sentences for people arrested during the ongoing antigovernment protests.

The parliament, elected in a non-competitive election in February 2020, is packed with hardliners and Revolutionary Guard officers.

In a statement that was read out in the parliament on Sunday, the lawmakers called the protesters ‘mohareb’ -- which literally means warrior in Arabic, but in Islamic law or sharia it means ‘enemy of God’ that carries the death penalty. They also compared the protesters to members of ISIS, who "attack people's lives and property..."

The Iranian regime has so far charged several people with ‘moharebeh,’ “corruption on earth,” “assembly and collusion against national security” and “confrontation with the Islamic Republic” for participating in the protests.

Describing the current wave of popular protests as “riots,” the MPs claimed that “the US and other enemies” are inciting violence, organizing rallies, and providing financial support and weaponry to commandeer the protests. They also said “thugs and mobs” have killed tens of people and disrupted the security of the country.

Echoing the Islamic Republic’s propaganda line, the lawmakers said that “the enemies have been defeated in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen” therefore they organized the “riots” as a reaction to “victories of the Islamic Republic.”

Without mentioning any individuals or groups, the hardline lawmakers also asked the judiciary to take legal actions against “the politicians who incited the rioters.”

Earlier in the parliament session, Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Qalibaf) said that main elements of Mossad, CIA and their allied groups are behind the unrest in the country.

Late in October, hardliner MP Mohammad Esmail Kowsari, also a high ranking IRGC officer, implicitly threatened that the government will respond differently to the ongoing protests from now on.

While protests continue across Iran, the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary has also announced that it has indicted over 1,000 people who were arrested during the demonstrations.

Authorities have been claiming that “separatists” and “instigators” are behind the efforts to overthrow the government and break Iran into areas controlled by ethnic groups, a claim routinely denied by Iranians on streets and social media.

The claim that protests are instigated by foreign enemies was first made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and loyal officials now repeat his conspiracy theory.

President Ebrahim Raisi on October 25 accused “enemies of the Islamic Republic” of fomenting the protests, echoing what Khamenei said a day earlier. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf in turn vowed that parliament would take action to change the ways of the morality police in a bid to calm the protesters.

“Death sentences against people for exercising their right to freedom of expression, after the killings of peaceful protesters, abductions and gunning down children, and other atrocities, indicate a government that is out of control and willing to quash protests at any cost,” said a statement by Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The Norway-based human rights organization also expressed concern regarding the fate of the detained protesters saying, “dozens of them have been charged with the security-related charges of ‘moharebeh’ and ‘corruption on earth’ which carry the death penalty.”

The Islamic Republic’s history and current evidence indicate that they intend to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to intimidate their opposition.

Earlier in November, 40 Iranian lawyers issued a statement saying most people no longer want the Islamic Republic and called on their peers to speak up and defend the people.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who had been arrested on September 13 for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code and died three days later from severe head trauma. Protests spread fueled by public outrage over a crackdown that led to the deaths of other young men, women, and children. Now in their seventh week, the protests show no sign of ending.

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.

Meaning of Mischief

In his Tafsir, As-Suddi said that Ibn `Abbas and Ibn Mas`ud commented,

(And when it is said to them: "Do not make mischief on the earth,'' they say: "We are only peacemakers.'') "They are the hypocrites. As for,

("Do not make mischief on the earth''), that is disbelief and acts of disobedience.'' Abu Ja`far said that Ar-Rabi` bin Anas said that Abu Al-`Aliyah said that Allah's statement,

(And when it is said to them: "Do not make mischief on the earth,''), means, "Do not commit acts of disobedience on the earth. Their mischief is disobeying Allah, because whoever disobeys Allah on the earth, or commands that Allah be disobeyed, he has committed mischief on the earth. Peace on both the earth and in the heavens is ensured (and earned) through obedience (to Allah).'' Ar-Rabi` bin Anas and Qatadah said similarly.

If you have mixed feelings about what's going on in Iran, you either don't comprehend the nuances (which is ok) or you haven't learned much from your religion past its symbols. I know there are lots of muslims who are supportive of women in Iran. We're grateful for you ❤ #sos_iran #iranrevolution #iranrevolution2022 #mahsaamini #freeiran #iranprotests2022 #مهسا_امینی #نیکا_شاه_کرمی #سارینا_اسماعیلی_زاده

What Western feminists can learn from Iran

Solidarity means more in Tehran than Washington

unherd.com|Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Is this it? Could this, finally, be the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran? As huge crowds of women and men surge through the Iranian streets, burning hijabs and calling for “Death to Khamenei!”, is an impossible dream finally about to come true?

The prospects certainly look better than in 2009, when the country’s protestors were primarily middle-class and more narrowly focused on the issue of Ahmadinejad’s election victory, rather than on dismantling the oppressive system in its entirety. Today, men and women, rural and urban, affluent and poor are all marching to bring down the Islamic Republic. Khamenei is also reported to be in very poor health, so the chants might just come true.

Yet senior US officials I have spoken to have cautioned against blind optimism. As they explained, we’ve seen many moments in recent Iranian history where the tide seemed about to turn, only to be disappointed. The same officials also warned that America is trying not to become too involved: the Biden administration isn’t supporting the protestors, but it isn’t explicitly discouraging them, either.

This isn’t an example of craven politics: I also fear that the end of the regime might not herald a brave new world, but rather a bloody mess, where Khamenei’s death is followed by internecine fighting for power between various Iranian factions. Would the overthrow of the regime lead to civil war, a military coup, or liberal democracy? Nobody knows.

None of this is to say that, faced with a possible uprising in Iran, America should avert its gaze. Perhaps more than anything, the wave of protests now sweeping the country is a perfect moment to remind ourselves of the shameful stupidity of US policy in the region in recent years. Take the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, which gave the regime time and space and money to strengthen its morality police and security infrastructure, as well as extend its regional influence. If no deal had been signed, perhaps the regime’s current crisis would have come sooner.

Nor should we forget the fact that Iran has recently tried to abduct and kill several American citizens on American soil; or that a number of senior US officials believe Iran is to blame for the attempted assassination of Salman Rushdie last month. It’s a national disgrace that America’s politicians saw fit to break bread with the butchers of Tehran in the first place. And still too many think we can politely sit down with them again to re-negotiate the nuclear deal. I wouldn’t blame the brave men and women of Iran if they never forgave us for such short-sighted idiocy.

Still, while the response of the West should be limited to cautious optimism, there is one other conclusion we can draw, no matter what happens: the current protests are a unique, and uniquely inspiring, phenomenon. Nowhere else in the Muslim world — and I mean, literally, nowhere else — would we see what we are seeing right now in Iran: men and women, together, standing up for each other, the men demanding justice for the regime’s murder of a woman who dared to let her hair show. It bears repeating: the men of Iran are standing alongside women as they burn their hijabs.

This is the most dramatic evidence of something I have long suspected: Iran is different. I have many Iranian women friends who are highly accomplished. They are doctors and scientists and writers and artists. When I ask them how they do it, they tell me that they owe much of their success to their male relatives’ support of their ambitions. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that the fire behind the protests was lit by Mahsa Amini’s family — in particular, her father, whose remarkable courage in accusing the Iranian authorities of a cover-up serves as an emblem of the solidarity many Iranian men have with their women.

Now, there are caveats to this. This phenomenon isn’t universal across Iran, and many Iranian women suffer terribly at the hands of their families (and some women are even vicious policers of “morality”). But the fact that even some men behave like this is distinctive in the Muslim world, and their appearence alongside women in these protests is not a sight that will soon be forgotten. In other Muslim countries, women suffer as much, if not more, at the hands of their male relatives as at the hands of the authorities. Men jealously guard women’s honour, beating, imprisoning, and even killing their female family members for bringing shame upon the family.

This is part of the reason why Iran is so unique: not only are men standing publicly with women, but women must also be aware that they are under no threat from their husbands and male relatives, otherwise they would not dare put themselves on the front lines like this. Consider, for example, the beautiful, inspiring videos of women tossing their headscarves into bonfires before dancing joyously away, for all the world to see. If they thought their fathers or brothers were waiting back home to punish them, I doubt we would see such sights on this scale.

Meanwhile, in the West, where feminism has proved more successful than anywhere else, anti-male grievance dominates the mainstream, with solidarity between men and women replaced by a desire for polarising identity politics. As America’s feminist movement collapses under the weight of it its own divisiveness, I can’t help but find its Iranian counterpart far more inspiring: men and women standing together, speaking up for each other’s rights. How much better this is than the violently woman-hating Taliban or the petulant privilege of so many Western feminists.

In March 1979, just as the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, the American feminist Kate Millett travelled to Iran to join a protest against his plan to make hijabs compulsory for women. The demonstration ultimately proved unsuccessful. Millett was arrested and expelled from the country; Iranian women were turned into second-class citizens. Yet, as we are now discovering, their revolutionary spirit was not extinguished. Iranian feminism has stood the test of time; it hasn’t been corrupted. If only the same could be said for the West.

Andrew: So you've both had experiences where you both grew up in Iran under this regime, being forced to wear the Islamic dress in accordance with the morality police, but I've heard women in the West, feminists in the west, sometimes say that it's “empowering” to wear the veil and this is something that is almost like a feminist symbol. How do you respond to that?

Elnaz: I would say, to me that's a symbol of oppression, honestly, because you have to wear it. It doesn't matter if you want to wear it or not. I was seven and I had to wear it to the school and I did not want to wear it, as a seven-year-old I didn't want to wear it, and I had no choice in that. And that means my opinion as a woman, I got the message that my opinion didn't matter. I have no voice, I couldn't... so psychologically, it taught me how not to say no to anything, and that goes from like saying no to hijab, saying no to other oppressions that were going in Iran, saying no to accountability, even I would say it affected my my marital life because you know, I felt I didn't matter.

Andrew: So, Mooniter, do you think it's just that people in the west aren't familiar with what's going on?

Mooniter: That's absolutely what it is, because feminists, if feminists are always saying that, they're advocating that my body, my choice. How about Iranian women? How is this our body, but Islamic Republic's choice? Or even the LGBTQ rights. Currently in Iran, September of 2022, we had two female LGBTQ activists who were who are on death row right now, they've been sentenced to death because they were activists for LGBTQ community on what crime? Corruption on Earth. That's the title of the crime that they've been sentenced to death for. So where is the LGBT community right now to stand up for the LGBT community in Iran right now who are on death row? Where are all the feminists in the world standing up for us to say Iranian woman's body, Iranian woman’s choice? Where are they right now? Are they raising a voice for us?

Andrew: Do you think is because there's a kind of cultural relativism where people in the west feel that if they are to pass judgment on Iranian culture that this is Islamophobic, or this is bigoted or prejudiced in some way?

Mooniter: This is what they created in the west. Islamophobia is what's been created by the west and it's been fed to the media. Standing up for freedom should never be labeled as Islamophobia, and I'm going to explain why. Because when the feminists that are talking about Islamophobia and they've always shot us down when we try to raise our voice are not listening to the Iranians. Prior to 1979, hijab was not mandatory in Iran. So how is this our culture when up until 1979 this was not mandatory and all of a sudden from 1979 in the past four decades, it became our culture? No, it's not our culture. This is not our culture, and the world needs to know that standing up for freedom is not Islamophobia, because if a woman wants to wear their hijab, go ahead wear it, we support you. But we don't want to wear it so you need to support us too, if you're standing up for freedom. If not, then that's bigotry.