When 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Iran’s Basij militia Sept. 13 for wearing her hijab too loosely, it wasn’t a good thing. Mahsa was returned dead Sept. 17, beaten to death with a truncheon by what the people call the “moral police,” a group of thugs paid by the Iranian government to maintain strict Sharia law in Iran. Mahsa’s death sparked rioting in 80 cities and towns around the Islamic Republic, with young women cutting their hair and burning hijabs or face scarves. Activists around Iran called for death to the mullah regime that had an iron grip on Iran since Ayatollah Ruhollah’s1979 Islamic Revolution. Americans don’t forget the U.S. Embassy in Tehran seized by Shiite radicals, taking 54 U.S. hostages, holding them for 444 days until President Ronald Reagan was inaugurate Jan. 20, 1981. Since then, the U.S. has had to diplomatic relations with Iran.
Protests spreading across Iran spark the possibility of revolution against the mullah regime of 83-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose appointed President cleric Ibrahim Raisi agrees wholeheartedly with Iran’s strict dress code for women. Attending the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 25, Raisi told CNN’s Persian-background Christiane Amanpour he would not interview her unless she wore a hijab. Ananpour, who lives in London, rejected Raisi’s demand and the interview never happened. So, when it comes to women’s rights in Iran, there’s much lost from the days of Shah Reza Pahlavi, whose liberal reforms in Iran were welcomed by almost all, except strict Shiite clerics. Amnesty International said Iran responded with “unlawful force, including by using live ammunition , birdshot and other mental pellets, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds of others,” Amnesty reported.
Instead of addressing Mahsa’s death head on, the mullah regime continues to do what it always does, use brutal force, including beatings, arrests, detentions and liquidations of protesters, to maintain control. “For millions of Iranian people right now, the brutal death of Mahsa Amini is becoming a tipping point. But for the Islamic Republic, the murder of Mahsa Amini is becoming a tipping point because compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth. It’s like the Berlin Wall. And if Iranian women manage to tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic won’t exist,” said Mash Aliinejad, a U.S.-based women’s rights activist. Mash knows that protest in the past have been suppressed by Iran’s Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards. Why Mash thinks things are different this time around is anyone’s guess. Iran is one of the most brutal regimes on the planet.
President Joe Biden, 79, hoped to spite former President Donald Trump, working to reestablish Obama’s 2015 Iranian Nuke Deal AKA the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], attempting to slow down Iran’s feverish pursuit of an A-Bomb. Trump cancelled Obama’s JCPOA May 8, 2018, when Iran used Yemen’s Houthi rebels to go to war against Saudi Arabia. Mahsa’s murder by the Basij carries similar outrage as the Oct. 2, 2018 murder by the Sauid government of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Alinejad wants Biden to put Iran on the priority list like Ukraine, where the former Soviet satellite fights for its freedom against the Kremlin. Iran’s state media brands protesters as “hypocrites, rioters, thugs and seditionists,” all attributing the nationwide protests to anarchy against the Islamic Republic. U.N. High Commission of Human Rights called for an independent investigation.
Protesters chanted “Women, Live, Liberty” while chopping off their hair and burning hijabs, a symbol of strict Sharia law, something imposed on Iranians since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Raisi showed his Islamic zealotry at the U.S. General Assembly, demanding a respected international journalist wear a hijab if they wanted an interview. So when it comes to the common people, the same fanaticism exists with the Basij militia known to crack heads for teenage girls putting on lipstick or listening to Western music. Iran’s Basij thinks they can control every aspect of Iranian life, constantly threatening ordinary people with beatings, arrests, disappearance and liquidations. Saeid Golkar, professor political science professor at the Univ. of Tennessee, called on the Biden to take Iran as seriously as Ukraine, saying the Iranian people deserve freedom too.
Iran’s women protest movement faces daunting challenges fighting off the Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards. Golkar is kidding himself thinking that during a bloody proxy war against the Russian Federation, the White House can take on Iran’s internal problems. With the Basij murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, it’s doubtful that Khamenei or Raisi will apologize to the Iranian people or, far less likely, actually change the Islamic Republic’s hijab policy. Biden has too much fish to fry battling Russia in Ukraine to take on liberating of Iran. Iran’s sporadic protests are usually set down by the mullah government, using unrelenting force on protesters. How Golkar and other Iranian freedom-activists think Biden can take on Iran’s problems is anyone’s guess. Over 41 protesters have died for Mahsa Amini but the mullah regime is prepared to massacre many more to stay in power.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
