By Tara N :
Women, Life, Freedom- About The Protests Going on in Iran
“A woman is worth half of a man”.
“Religion should not be a choice”.
“Women shouldn't have individual freedom”.
If you disagree with these statements, SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!
On September 13, 2022, an Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini was detained at a train station for wearing her headscarf too loosely. Three days later, she died while in a coma. Iranian authorities claim she had a heart attack and died, but eyewitnesses and her medical records point to a different story.
According to other detained women, Mahsa was beaten by officers while in the police station. Her autopsy points towards severe blows to her head, likely caused by batons the authorities carry.
The protests sparked by Mahsa’s death are the largest Iran has seen since 2017 when gas prices tripled and the economy nearly collapsed due to unemployment.
Protesters, mostly young students, are taking to the streets and pushing back against what has been forced upon them for so long. Women are burning their headscarves and cutting their hair to mock the idea of covering it.
You see, in Iran, all 3 statements I've typed above are not only believed to be true by the government but they are also enforced by laws that utterly destroy women's freedoms.
Those who aren't killed are arrested, tortured, and even sexually assaulted. The Internet was even shut down just a few weeks ago to prevent Iranians from coordinating protests and communicating with the outside world.
Teenagers fighting for their freedom are killed every week in disturbingly brutal ways. On September 23, a vlogger named Sarina Esmailzadeh was beaten to death at a protest. After her death, her family was subjected to intense harassment to try and stop them from telling others the truth.
The people in Iran are fighting to change something in their government, fighting to make their voices heard. Doesn’t some burden of responsibility fall upon us? Our silence gives power to a government that thinks it has won. All those killed, raped, and arrested in Iran have thrown their lives and freedom away for nothing if that belief becomes a reality.
If you don't care about the women, children, and men being slaughtered in Iran, speak up for yourself. Because this could have been you, born halfway across the world. You could have been any one of these people killed in Iran. A life cut short because the government didn't and doesn't care about your freedom.
In short, YOUR voice is important. YOU need to help spread the word about what's going on because women deserve basic human rights everywhere.