The fury of women scorned

For three long days now, I have been riveted by the Iran election results, rallies, riots and revolution that are happening in real-time on Twitter, with videos on YouTube. Millions of people all over the world are spreading the news and showing their support to the young people who reject the current Islamic fundamentalist government and who bravely have taken to the streets and, in some case, to their computers.

Many of us, me included, have turned our profile pictures green to show our solidarity. We're determined to keep this story alive. And we've been doing a far better job of it than most of the mainstream media who were either jammed or shut down by the authorities, or just out of the loop while chasing trivia such as the David Letterman-vs-Sarah Palin nonsense.

Eerily, some of the defiant voices from Iran have grown quiet, as the government cracks down, storming universities, searching houses, making arrests. I am haunted by the photo of the smashed computer in this collection of images.

As one of my Tweeps said, it's playing a giant game of ''Whack-a-mole'' with those who defy the law and keep SOSing the world.

Writes Robert Fisk:

The protesters' bravery was all the more staggering because many had already learned of the savage killing of five Iranians on the campus of Tehran University, done to death – according to students – by pistol-firing Basiji militiamen. When I reached the gates of the college yesterday morning, many students were weeping behind the iron fence of the campus, shouting "massacre" and throwing a black cloth across the mesh. That was when the riot police returned and charged into the university grounds once more.

In all the photos and videos I have seen, one thing has been striking to me. In images of the rallies supporting the current government, there are few or, more often, no women. But, in those showing the protesters who support Mirhossein Mousavi, the women, veiled or not, are evident everywhere.

Today the Christian Science Monitor had something to say about that:

During the campaign, Iran's feminists found a voice in the popular opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister. He promised to disband the morality police, reform the many laws that treat women unequally, and appoint women to high posts. He campaigned with his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent academic and author of 15 books. The two appear to be a loving couple, displaying a modern equality to Iranian women. But he "lost" the vote – even in his hometown, which was yet another sign that the fix was in.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, has a strong record against women. He changed the name of the government's "Center for Women's Participation" to the "Center for Women and Family Affairs." He limited women's access to higher education and proposed laws that would allow men to divorce their wives without informing them and not to pay alimony.

Most of all, the regime has jailed dozens of women involved in the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grass-roots movement that began in 2006 to reform the legal system and to end gender discrimination. The group has been harassed in their homes and branded as illegal.

It is of little surprise, then, to see images of women, only slightly veiled, confronting the regime in postelection protests. While Ahmadinejad's false victory may have toughened the clerics' foreign posture with the West, they've only exposed their weakness at home.

Eventually, Iran's women will not be denied.

Maybe they will make all the difference.

Comments

[littlemisssunshine]

We can all make a difference by keeping the issue of gender inequality front & centre, in the media and in our own sphere of influence. You do a great job Antonia!
We will not be silenced. We will speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. One day we will live in a world where all women are free, equal and educated.

[Rick]

The Crocodile Tears of the 'Bomb Iran' Faction. Much of the same faction now claiming such 'concern' for the 'welfare of The Iranian People' are the same people who have long been advocating a military attack on Iran and the dropping of large numbers of bombs on their country
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/16/iran/index.html

[doood]

America has weapons aimed at Beijing as well. Does that mean the Tiananmen protesters were wrong, too? Simply because the protesters protest a regime that America doesn't like does that make them some kind of imperialist dupes?

[jeffryh]

The idea that women are central to the new Iranian Revolution has received powerful confirmation from the New York Times reporter on scene, Roger Cohen. He writes:

"I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/opinion/21tehran.html?ref=opinion