Men in Iran finally stand up for the honor and freedom of their women

For the second week in Iran, protests continue, caused by the death of 22-year-old student Mahsi Amini in a police station. About 60 people have already died. Events have shown that the Iranian society comprehends and rethinks the “Islamic revolution” that took place 43 years ago.

The vice police detained Mahsi Amini on September 16 for wearing the hijab “incorrectly” because it did not completely cover her hair. According to eyewitnesses, she was beaten in a police van, after which she fell into a coma. Police said the cause of death was a heart attack.

At the funeral in her hometown, her relatives, especially her brothers, demanded an investigation into what had happened. They were supported by the locals. Protests swept the whole country. Iranian women tore off and burned their hijabs, cut off their hair.

The authorities immediately announced that the rallies were organized by “enemies from some embassies and foreign intelligence services.” Russian political scientist Sergei Markov put forward his version: “In Iran, many believe that the protests were organized by the United States because Iran began to massively supply drones to Russia for use in hostilities in Ukraine.” The men took to the streets along with the women. They got into fights with the police, tore posters from the walls with a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, shouted “Death to the dictator!” The Student Union Council called for a strike. The police use water cannons, batons, open fire to kill. In ten days, according to various sources, almost 60 people died.

But forceful crackdowns and President Ibrahim Raisi’s threat to “crack down on those who oppose the security and peace of the country” fueled even more bitterness. The protesters are already using Molotov cocktails, throwing them at a motorcade of the IRGC – the corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who were driving to disperse the demonstrators, are attacking the military, taking away a lot of weapons. There are reports that in some places the police are going over to the side of the people, that certain microdistricts have been taken under the control of the protesters, but the information is incomplete, fragmentary – the Internet in Iran is constantly turned off.

The slogan “Women, life, freedom!” became a common symbol of protest.

Finally, Iranian men resolutely stood up to protect the honor and freedom of their women.

This is not the first performance. True, the previous ones were not so radical. In 2018-2019, along with economic protesters, they put forward demands (it’s scary to say) to abolish certain Sharia norms that cruelly dictate how to dress, what to think and say, what to watch. This means that they encroached on the power of the Islamic clergy, on the foundations of the clerical state. In particular, they called for women to be able to take to the streets without a hijab and headscarf. Some even spoke of an independent, secular court and an independent press. Among the slogans of the demonstrators was this: “Shah Reza – rest in peace, we remember you!”. That is, they remembered the last Shahinshah of Iran – Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Whom they themselves overthrew 43 years ago.

Shahinshah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (reigned 1941-1979) was a pro-Western man who launched a program of secular reforms called the White Revolution, invited almost 60,000 American specialists to the country, and launched the construction of modern industrial enterprises. With the proceeds from the sale of oil, the state bought land from landowners and sold it to peasants at low prices – one and a half million peasants became owners of their allotments!

At the same time, the shah began a program of secular reforms, encroached on Sharia law. Girls in Iran got the right to education, the opportunity to walk without hijabs, moreover, to learn ballet! Yes, there were ballet schools in Iran, a theater, the formation of which was helped by invited stars of world art, for example, Maurice Bejart and Rudolf Nureyev. Now it is impossible to imagine this: Iran – and opera festivals, Iran – and ballet schools, Iran – and Maurice Béjart, Iran – and Rudolf Nureyev.

In an Islamist country, everything is decided by men and only men. And therefore the following lines are about them. The main part of men (deeply patriarchal, feudal) perceived the innovations of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as an insult to religious feelings. Moreover, the youth protested furiously. The same youth who received hitherto unseen freedoms and opportunities. We in the USSR were amazed: “Why do they need mullahs? If they don’t want jeans, they want a veil for girls!? Do not be surprised at the emphasis on now banal pants, it was a cherished, one might say, sacred thing in Soviet life in the 70s.

This is how Iranian men installed their national leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, on the throne 43 years ago. Mullocracy reigned in the country. Solid sharia.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian women were required to wear the hijab, a loose garment that conceals the figure. For 43 years – no concessions. In August of this year, a law was passed, according to which for the publication of a photo without a hijab, one can be fined, fired from work, and restricted in rights for a period of 6 months.

It took four decades for men to think. The new Iranian youth is beginning to understand what choice was made in 1978-1979 by their fathers and grandfathers, who were then their peers – the strike force of the Muslim detachments of Ayatollah Khomeini.

In 1968-1971, Maurice Simashko’s novel “Mazdak” (the first title was “The Chronicle of King Kavad”) was published in Alma-Ata. It artistically recreates the events of the world’s first revolution under the red flag – in Ancient Iran of the 5th-6th centuries AD, led by the great magician Mazdak. Its main driving force was people who called themselves “Believers in the Truth.” They “sworn by blood to remake the world according to the great truth of Mazdak”, wore red leather jackets. Then there were special services, whose employees wore black leather jackets – “Protecting the Truth.” After the death of Mazdak, they seized power and began to drag with iron hooks into zindans and execute “those who believe in the truth”, declaring them traitors.

History, of course, teaches nothing. In 1978-1979, Iranian men did not realize that in almost any country, after the adherents of the faith, ardent adherents of the faith necessarily appear who know how to believe “correctly”, and then – “guarding the faith”, who begin to punish for the “wrong” understanding faith. In Iran, they are officially called the “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”. And they are the main power support of the regime. In this case, with the murder of Mahsi Amini, these were not even “guards”, but the morality police, which “knows” and observes how to “correctly” wear the hijab. And – punishes.

Iranian men 43 years ago did not think that prohibitions breed an escalation of prohibitions, and that an escalation of prohibitions inevitably creates a civilization of prohibitions. The fate and fate of such civilizations is pitiful and insignificant.

A highly developed European civilization is inextricably linked with the assertion of women’s rights, starting with the struggle of knights against the church, which degrades women, with knightly veneration of women, serving a beautiful lady.

I think the parallels are undeniable. Where a woman has no rights, wretchedness and poverty reign. It seems to be obvious. But not all yet.

Sergei Baimukhametov.