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The Islamic regime in Iran has dominated for many years with concern and intimidation.
Outrage on the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22 year-old who died after being detained by Iran’s morality coverage, allegedly for improperly carrying her hijab, ignited nationwide protests throughout the nation which have gone on for weeks.
That Iranians are risking their lives and freedom to face as much as their authorities has sparked hope amongst many who change is coming. Learn CNN’s newest report.
I talked on the cellphone to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian in exile within the US who works as a journalist and activist.
Key factors:
- She makes use of social media – 8 million followers on Instagram alone – to amplify and support the protests inside Iran.
- US authorities charged 4 Iranian nationals with attempting to kidnap her final 12 months.
- To Alinejad, that ladies in Iran are eradicating their headscarves as an act of protest is the same as the autumn of the Berlin Wall.
- She sees solidarity with dissidents from different oil-rich autocracies like Russia and Venezuela, and has a stern message for feminists within the West.
Our dialog, edited for readability and size, is under. I’ve additionally added some context and hyperlinks in parentheses the place applicable.
WHAT MATTERS: This article isn’t normally centered on Iran. Are you able to first simply clarify what’s occurring?
ALINEJAD: Mahsa Amini was solely 22 years outdated. … She got here from Saqqez to Tehran for a trip. Then she obtained arrested by the so-called morality police – as a result of I name them the hijab police.
And in your viewers, in the event that they don’t know what morality police means, they’re a bunch of police strolling within the streets, telling folks whether or not their manner of carrying hijab is correct or not.
Mahsa was arrested for carrying inappropriate hijab. So she was not unveiled.
(Here’s a CNN report by which the Iranian police deny the allegation she was overwhelmed.)
ALINEJAD: That created big anger amongst Iranians. And that’s the reason ladies throughout Iran first began to chop their hair. Then they took to the road and so they began to burn their headscarves. And now, with males, shoulder to shoulder, throughout Iran they’re not solely saying no to obligatory hijab, they’re truly chanting towards the dictator and they’re saying we wish an finish to the Islamic Republic.
It is a revolution.
To me, it is a ladies’s revolution towards a gender apartheid regime.
WHAT MATTERS: The Iranian authorities has tried to crack down on this. We see video that will get out of Iran of those protests. How have issues modified within the weeks since Mahsa’s demise?
ALINEJAD: From the start, the extent of crackdown was so brutal. They opened fireplace, they actually opened fireplace on youngsters, college leaders, college college students, they opened fireplace on unarmed folks.
Now some studies say greater than 130 folks have been killed. But it surely’s strongly believed the quantity is far more than this. Solely in Zahedan on solely someday, they opened fireplace on those that have been praying. Who have been praying. They killed greater than 80 folks in Zahedan.
(CNN has not verified all of those claims. Associated CNN report: Iranian safety forces beat, shot and detained college students of elite Tehran college, witnesses say.
Amnesty Worldwide has reported on the killing of 66 in Zahedan together with different deaths recorded elsewhere.
Concerning demise tolls: CNN can not independently confirm the demise toll – a exact determine is unattainable for anybody exterior the Iranian authorities to substantiate – and completely different estimates have been given by opposition teams, worldwide rights organizations and native journalists.)
ALINEJAD: The Iranian regime reduce off the web in some cities to stop the remainder of the world from attending to know concerning the crackdown, to get to study concerning the variety of folks killed.
However once more. That didn’t cease folks. Truly, it modified the tone of the protesters. They grew to become extra offended. They have been holding the names and images of those that obtained killed and the most important slogan was this: ‘We’re able to die, however we gained’t dwell beneath humiliation.’
One of many younger ladies whose title was Hadis Najafi, she was solely 20 years outdated. She made a video of herself strolling on the street and saying I’m becoming a member of the protests. Sooner or later, if I see that Iran has modified, that change got here, then I used to be proudly a part of this demonstration. She obtained killed. There are lots of of them.
(CNN has reported that Najafi’s household stated she was shot six occasions and by no means made it residence from a protest. She was 23. There are studies of a number of younger ladies killed. Right here’s a CNN video report on Nika Shahkarami, whose household discovered her physique at a morgue after not having the ability to discover her for 10 days following an Instagram story of her burning her headband.)
College students filmed themselves burning their headscarves, however they obtained killed. However murdering and killing didn’t cease the protests. As an alternative they grew to become extra offended. Now schoolgirls got here out, college professors got here out, lecturers got here out and ask for a strike.
(Right here’s a CNN report that explains the particular significance of strikes in Iran.)
WHAT MATTERS: The flashpoint is one girl’s demise that set off all of those protests. But it surely’s a motion that’s been constructing for months –
ALINEJAD: Don’t say for months. I don’t settle for that. It has been constructing for years. Years of ladies pushing again the boundaries the anti-woman legal guidelines, particularly obligatory hijab legal guidelines.
For years and years, these ladies that you simply see within the streets, they’ve been preventing again obligatory hijabs alone. Like lonely troopers. I personally have printed movies of ladies being overwhelmed by morality police beneath the hashtag #mycameraismyweapon. I actually need you to go and verify this hashtag. Courageous ladies filming themselves whereas being harassed by morality police and seeking to the morality police and saying that you simply can not inform me what to put on.
Slavery was once authorized. I’m not going to respect dangerous regulation in Iran.
That is being constructed up by ladies throughout the society training their civil disobedience in bravely saying no to pressured hijab and the gender apartheid regime for years and years. That’s my opinion. Mahsa’s title grew to become an emblem of resistance for ladies to take to the streets in giant numbers. That’s the brand new factor.
WHAT MATTERS: How will this be reworked into everlasting change? How will it evolve from right here?
ALINEJAD: Look, this isn’t going to occur in a single day. That is the start of an finish. It takes time. It jogs my memory of the revolution 40 years in the past. Folks have been taking to the streets for like one month and have been going again residence after which coming again once more. The nationwide strike helped lots. For me and tens of millions of individuals, that is just the start to an finish.
The obligatory hijab isn’t just a small piece of material for Iranians. It’s just like the Berlin Wall. I preserve saying that. If ladies can efficiently tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic gained’t exist.
Perhaps within the West, folks ignore me and so they by no means take this significantly. However the Supreme Chief of Iran, Ali Khamenei, he is aware of what I’m speaking about. That’s why, simply two days in the past, he referred to my assertion evaluating the hijab to the Berlin Wall, saying that ‘she is an American agent and now we have taken motion towards her.’
(Alinejad shared this video of Khamenei on Twitter, by which he refers to US political parts making the comparability to the Berlin Wall.)
ALINEJAD: But it surely’s not me. It’s tens of millions of people that consider that obligatory hijab is like the primary pillar of the spiritual dictatorship. It’s like the primary pillar of the Islamic Republic.
That’s why I consider that now persons are being fearless and clear that we wish to break this weakest pillar of the Islamic Republic… I strongly consider that the largest menace to the Islamic Republic are the ladies who’re main the revolution, who’re dealing with weapons and bullets and saying that we wish an finish for this gender apartheid regime.
WHAT MATTERS: In Iran, and we’ve seen this in Russia as properly, social media helps unfold the phrase and is crucial to organizing protests. Right here within the US, it’s usually seen as a menace to our democracy as a result of that’s the place misinformation is unfold. I ponder should you had any ideas on that dichotomy.
ALINEJAD: Let me be very clear with you. Proper now, the tech firms are literally serving to the Islamic Republic. To start with, Iranians are banned from utilizing social media – Instagram, Fb and Twitter are filtered. The leaders like Khamenei and different officers who ban 80 million folks from utilizing social media, all of them have verified accounts. They’ve a number of accounts on social media. Mainly, the Iranian regime reduce off the Web for its personal folks, however they’re being greater than welcomed on social media to unfold faux info, misinformation, disinformation.
(Accounts that seem like related to Khamenei are on Twitter and Instagram and have giant followings. They don’t seem to be verified by Instagram or Twitter. Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark. A spokesman for Meta stated this in an e mail: “Iranians use apps like Instagram to remain near their family members, discover info and make clear vital occasions – and we hope the Iranian authorities restore their entry quickly. Within the meantime, our groups are following the scenario carefully, and are centered on solely eradicating content material that breaks our guidelines, whereas addressing any enforcement errors as shortly as attainable.”)
WHAT MATTERS: The US authorities has tried to extend Iranian’s entry to the web. Is that working?
ALINEJAD: Oh, after all, that is phenomenal. However we want extra. We’d like extra.
The factor is, on the similar time, the US authorities, we’re happy that they’re offering web entry for Iranians. That is good. We admire that.
However on the similar time, the US authorities is concentrated on getting a deal from this regime, the identical regime.
They condemn the brutality, they condemn the Iranian authorities for killings, however on the similar time, they attempt to give cash, billions of {dollars}, to the identical murderers. And I don’t perceive this contradiction.
(The US authorities might give Iran’s authorities entry to billions of {dollars} of frozen Iranian funds if it re-joins an settlement whereby Iran can promote oil in change for abandoning nuclear weapons functionality. Latest talks, nevertheless, haven’t gone properly. Learn extra.)
ALINEJAD: Many individuals within the streets are actually risking their lives and wish an finish for a similar regime. They aren’t asking for US authorities to go there and save them in any respect. They’re courageous sufficient to do it themselves. However they’re actually clearly asking the US authorities to not save the Iranian regime. …
Folks consider that the cash goes to the advantage of the folks. It doesn’t go to the folks. The cash goes to Syria, Lebanon, to Hamas, Hezbollah, to terrorist organizations.
For tens of millions of Iranians now, that is the second they need the US authorities to ask its allies, the European international locations, to recall their ambassadors and to chop their ties with the murders till the day that they’re certain that the Iranian regime is stopped killing its personal folks.
(CNN isn’t in a position to affirm that each one the cash goes to terrorist organizations or that none of it goes to Iranian folks. Iran does fund terror teams exterior its borders, in accordance with the US authorities, and its personal Islamic Revolutionary Guard is a terror group, in accordance with the US authorities.)
WHAT MATTERS: I wish to speak about one other dichotomy you’ve identified. You wrote in The Washington Put up that feminists all around the world want to concentrate and take to the streets.
ALINEJAD: You can’t name your self a feminist within the West, in America, and never take motion on one of the vital vital feminist revolutions, in Iran.
By saying that, I don’t imply that I need the feminists to simply seem on TV and reduce their hair to point out their solidarity.
I need, particularly the feminine politicians, to chop their ties … and as a substitute take to the streets to point out their solidarity with the ladies of Iran. When the Ladies’s March occurred right here in America, like each single feminist world wide confirmed solidarity. I used to be a part of the Ladies’s March in New York. The primary slogan was ‘my physique my selection.’
However on the similar time I’m witnessing that on the subject of Iran and Afghanistan, evidently my physique my selection isn’t as vital as it’s within the West.
(Right here Alinejad stated ladies representing Western governments who meet with Iranian and Afghan officers ought to chorus from carrying headscarves.)
WHAT MATTERS: You took half this week in an Oslo Freedom Discussion board occasion in New York with different dissidents from Russia and Venezuela. These are two locations which can be repressive, and so they’re additionally funded largely by oil. The US desires extra oil available on the market. I simply puzzled should you had any bigger feedback to make on this query?
ALINEJAD: That is what’s lacking right here. The dictators are extra united than our freedom fighters.
Let me provide you with an instance. Simply two months in the past, (Vladimir) Putin went to Iran. (Nicolás) Maduro from Venezuela went to Iran … from China to Russia to Venezuela to Nicaragua, in every single place. The leaders from autocracies and dictatorships are united. They’re serving to one another. They’re supporting one another to oppress protests going down in every nation. However we the liberty fighters, we the opposition to those dictators should be united as properly, as a result of after we struggle towards autocracy or dictatorship on our personal, we’re not going to achieve success.
(Alinejad stated she has talked to dissidents from Russia and Venezuela about calling a World Liberty Congress for opposition and activist leaders.)
ALINEJAD: If we don’t get united to finish dictatorship, then the dictators will get united to finish democracy. We’re not preventing only for ourselves. I’m not preventing only for Iran. Garry Kasparov isn’t preventing for simply Russia. Leopoldo Lopez isn’t preventing only for Venezuela. We’re preventing for democracy. We’re attempting to guard the remainder of the world from these dictators.
(Our dialog continued from right here and Alinejad argued the “United Nations is ineffective.” It’s true the United Nations prioritizes inclusion of most international locations over motion. And it’s awkward at finest that Iran sits on the UN’s Fee on Ladies’s Rights and Russia sits on the Safety Council.)
ALINEJAD: We have to have our personal different United Nations, the place all the great folks get united, not the dangerous guys. Now the dangerous guys are successful as a result of they’re serving to one another. So that is the time that each one the great individuals who take care of freedom and democracy get united and have their very own society.