When I heard that a young Iranian woman, 22 years old, Mahsa Amini, had died in police custody after being beaten so hard that she suffered a fatal head injury, my British-Iranian blood clotted.
Mahsa had been detained for an alleged hijab violation.
The undemocratic election of IranThe Islamic government and the imposition of mandatory hijabs on women – plus the human rights abuses and sexist oppression – that has ruled the Iranian people, especially women, have taken more than 40 painfully long years.
This one death of an innocent woman has rightly led to massive nationwide protests in the country.
The women of Iran are so rightly filled with decades of anger, despair and the desire to finally restore their free will and freedom that they burning their hijabs in public and even cut their hair in protest.
Videos of these protests are slipping out to the rest of the world and it is both terrifying and sad to watch.
The fact that women who want the right to show their hair in public cut it off in protest is tragic.
As a British Iranian who has visited Iran countless times in my life, as a child, teenager, young woman, mature adult… I cannot begin to tell you how brave these women really are.
I walked those streets of Tehran in my obligatory hijab and loose fitting specially bought clothes and watched the so-called “morality police” watch me from head to toe for every violation.
No nail polish. No make-up. Don’t pluck her out. No jacket or cover up too tight. None! No collarbones!
Every time I passed the horde of cops—because they were never alone and instead prey on women like a pack of wolves in numbers—I held my breath and lowered my eyes, praying they wouldn’t find a reason to kill me. to arrest.
I saw with my own eyes women being forcibly pushed into the officers’ vehicles and saw the expression of utter terror on their faces as they were driven away.
An absolute loss of human rights can happen to me every time I set foot in Iran just to spend time with my family.
During the 1979 revolution that ushered in Islamic rule in Iran, my uncle was executed by midnight gunfire after being denied access to a lawyer, his family or a trial.
He was murdered by the same government that now has “morality police” that prowl the streets looking for women like Mahsa to harass and arrest.
Those officials killed my uncle with a bullet between the eyes and dumped his body in an unmarked mass grave that is now used as a garbage dump – and guarded 24/7 by police guards – simply because he gave food and shelter to people who lost every worldly possession at night during the revolution.
My grandmother went to her grave and could never visit her youngest son’s.
The echoes of my uncle’s execution reverberate through my head because that has become my parents’ homeland since the revolution: a place of human rights abuses, oppression, sexism, misogyny and everyday fear on a scale that people in the West can’t even comprehend.
That is why I am writing this article anonymously. Even though I write it with pride, my fear for my family who remains in Iran remains.
And that’s why I get chills when I read how Mahsa was treated.
Now a nation of women mourn Mahsa and fight for their own freedoms, while facing barbaric treatment from their compatriots who continue to support these crimes against humanity.
I am full of admiration for those incredibly brave women who risk their freedom and lives on the streets as they try to end this horrific oppression.
I wouldn’t have the guts.
But what makes me so sad is that I know that whatever they do, their lives won’t change for the better until the rest of the civilized world gives these women overt, political and financial support.
The fact that while these protests are taking place, President Ebrahim Raisi still got a seat at the UN amazes me. Why is the world giving this man a platform?
He had the audacity to ask Christiane Amanpour to wear a headscarf. When she rightly refused, he canceled the interview. His performance clearly endorses that of his ‘morality police’.
Unless the world speaks out and supports the Iranian people in useful ways; unless we stop giving platform, support or aid to Iranian government officials and until we instead give more refuge, airtime and tangible support to the women and men fighting oppression in Iran, they will never break free – despite their anger, determination and numbers.
Instead, young people like my beautiful, talented, smart and driven female Iranian cousins will continue to see their talents wasted, their lives repressed and bodies regulated until their last breath.
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