Women, Life, Freedom

Mahsa Amini - #sayhername - Women, Life, Freedom. 

Hats off to the valorous women and men standing up and making their voices heard in Iran. What these women and men face is more than being shot, more than imprisonment. They face torture. The most common form of torture in the middle east is called Falaqah, which is the beating of the soles of a prisoner's shackled feet with a stick or a cable. A two-hour beating can make a victim crawl for weeks. In a statement from Mahsa Amani's father, he said the authorities still claim she died of a heart attack but with no pre-existing heart condition, and given her age; it's doubtful in the extreme. Her father said he was not allowed to see her body immediately following her death, and when they finally allowed him to see his daughter, she was wrapped up completely, with only her face and her feet showing. Her father noticed bruising on her feet, and he said, "I have no idea what they did to her".

There are reports out there that she died of a head wound inflicted by the morality police who picked her up. She is not the first to die at the hands of these morality police and she will not be the last. That is why it is up to everyone who can fight back to fight back. While the current regime will crack down on them fiercely. Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader of Iran (Don't even get me started on his title...), has no intention of losing power. In the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, after trying to stay in control, had the good sense to leave. Still, Khamenei has no intention of doing so as he shut down the internet and social platforms to ensure the world could not watch what is happening right now... Iranian history, unfortunately, will not record the bloodshed an example of this was the 3 Day riot in 1963 where 15,000 were dead from police fire. However, anti-revolutionary sources conjectured that just 32 were killed. This is why he needed to shut down the internet last time the world was not watching, shutting down the internet makes it easier to alter history and convince those on the fence that it was a minor incident. There is no knowing where this is going to end, but it is going to cost a lot of people their lives. We should say their names.

A person asked me recently about the events in Iran, and if I thought the head scarf burning and the revolution might trickle down through the middle east and land in Saudi Arabia, the easy answer is no. The bigger question is why? Saudi Arabia and Iran are wildly different. Especially regarding the way the countries are ruled and women's education. As the world turns, we must look back to understand why things happen the way they do unlike Saudi Arabia where in the 1950s 95% of Saudis were illiterate, and there was no girls school in the entire country. Iran's first girls school popped up in 1907. Women in Iran had access to education a whole 43 years before Saudi girls were allowed to go to school. Iranian women had the right to choose to cover their hair before 1979 when a revolution came that took that right away. It's hard to fight for something three generations had no idea was ever theirs. In Saudi, we grow up knowing that this is the way it is. When I was young and women could not drive people would ask me how I felt about not having the right to drive, and I would say, "It's fine" You can't miss what you never had. Unlike these brave Iranian women, many of them remember that they had a choice once. 

I wish it would trickle down, I wish my strong Saudi women would rise up and demand the freedoms so long denied them but the truth of the matter is it will take a lot more. 

#sayhername #Iran #womenofiran #MahsaAmini # Womenlifefreeom