Quote of the Day:
Women are the predominant face of this blossoming revolution. Women are risking the most to speak out against the Iranian Mullahs. So the question must be asked: Where are the women’s movement supporters in the United States and Europe, which gathered en masse to protest a newly inaugurated American president last year?
–Stephen L. Miller of Fox News
We've always been critical of women who, while loudly proclaiming themselves advocates of women, fail to stand up for women in genuinely oppressive regimes.
This is a good time to be awed by the Iranian women, often forgotten by women in the west, who are risking their lives in the protests in Iran. Fox reports:
The most striking images coming out of the Iran human rights protests are not of men – they are of women. And while American media was slow and even hesitant to pick up that anything at all was actually happening – this, while protests ignited for what is now six full days around Iran, nine years after the Green Movement protests began – Twitter was flooded with videos and photos on the ground, in defiance of the Iranian regime’s social media policy.
Almost none was more striking than a young Iranian woman standing atop a container and shedding her hijab – a garment mandated and enforced upon her and all women in Iran – while simultaneously waving it as a flag. It was an act of defiance much like that of the Iranian chess champion Dorsa Derakhshani, who was expelled from competition in Iran for refusing to wear a headscarf in competition.
There were unconfirmed reports that the unidentified girl was taken into custody and the spot where she stood had become a makeshift shrine, but because of the scattering of information on the ground there’s no way to confirm that.
Nevertheless, she became an immediate symbol for the growing movement now in its fifth full day. Twitter avatars were changed to an illustration capturing the moment. The drawing was spread on Facebook. But she wasn’t the only one.
Another video spread on social media shows a woman confronting security forces and proclaiming “Death to Khamenei” while crowds around her join in.
Mind you, this wasn’t inauguration protests from January of last year with celebrity activists screaming freely into microphones about how much they’ve thought about blowing up the White House. This was a woman endangering her life and possibly the lives of her loved ones to stand up to government forces of a hardline Islamic theocracy. She was risking death. And yet, nevertheless, she persisted.
Another woman was seen on tape declaring "You raised your fists and ruined our lives. Now we raise our fists. Be men, join us. I as a woman will stand in front and protect you. Come represent your country.”
It is regrettable that the mullahs and their repressive, terror-exporting regime are flush with cash they can use to remain in power thanks to the former U.S. administration, which sent billions in dividends and $1.7 billion in cash to this corrupt government as part of the Iran nuclear deal.
At least this time, unlike when Iranians took to the streets in 2009, the U.S. president was quick to give strong moral support. It is to be hoped that the mullahs will be thwarted in attempts to shut down the free flow of information via the internet.
Let us hope that this courage we see in the streetsof Iran will not be in vain.