- Iran: Eight Prisoners Hanged on Drug Charges
- Daughter of late Iranian president jailed for ‘spreading lies’ - IRAN: Annual report on the death penalty 2016 - Taheri Facing the Death Penalty Again - Dedicated team seeking return of missing agent in Iran - Iran Arrests 2, Seizes Bibles During Catholic Crackdown
- Trump to welcome Netanyahu as Palestinians fear U.S. shift
- Details of Iran nuclear deal still secret as US-Tehran relations unravel - Will Trump's Next Iran Sanctions Target China's Banks? - Don’t ‘tear up’ the Iran deal. Let it fail on its own. - Iran Has Changed, But For The Worse - Iran nuclear deal ‘on life support,’ Priebus says
- Female Activist Criticizes Rouhani’s Failure to Protect Citizens
- Iran’s 1st female bodybuilder tells her story - Iranian lady becomes a Dollar Millionaire on Valentine’s Day - Two women arrested after being filmed riding motorbike in Iran - 43,000 Cases of Child Marriage in Iran - Woman Investigating Clinton Foundation Child Trafficking KILLED!
- Senior Senators, ex-US officials urge firm policy on Iran
- In backing Syria's Assad, Russia looks to outdo Iran - Six out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’ - The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran - Netanyahu urges Putin to block Iranian power corridor - Iran Poses ‘Greatest Long Term Threat’ To Mid-East Security |
Friday 04 February 2011The Fight for DemocracyTheHuffingtonPost, Anyone remember what one of the most striking images to surface from Iran's uprising last summer over the fallout from the country's so-called elections were? Iranian women protesting. The world was shocked to see Iranians, 70% of whom are under that age of 25-years-old, pour onto the streets demanding their votes be counted. But what was equally confusing for the world to see was the huge role Iranian women played in shaping this revolt against their government. Why should people be surprised? Iranian women, who make up 65% of university students in the country, are also amongst the most educated in the Middle East. They have been organizing underground for years under a regime that specifically targets their rights. In fact at the end of last summer's bloody protests, it was the face of a woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, brutally shot to death by an Iranian government sniper, who became the defining symbol for the "Green Revolution." We are witnessing a very similar movement in Egypt. No, I am not talking about the fall of a "secular leader" (read: oppressive dictator backed by the US) in a Muslim country, thus leading to the creation of an Islamic State. I know this is the big fear of the West and the US media that the fall of Hosni Mobark's government, aka dictatorship, will only pave the way for Egypt to become the "new Iran." I am talking about young people coming out in full-force to fight for democracy. I am talking about young Muslims fighting for their freedoms and quite literally being killed for it. We saw it in Iran last year and we are seeing it in Egypt today. Their fight for freedom breaks the age-old stereotype that Arabs and Muslims do not want democracy and are incapable of handling it. Unless of course it is hand-delivered by the US through invasion, occupation, and in some kind of three-step program ushered in by USAID, right? These uprisings in a region where the majority of the population are young, educated, and craving the freedom to determine their destinies are shared by Muslim men and women alike. Just like we saw Iranian women come out to fight for their rights last year, we are seeing it in Egypt right now. Women are at the forefront of these protests, breaking a huge stereotype about Muslim women: That we are passive, voiceless, and apathetic when it comes to our country's politics. Democracy and women's rights go hand in hand. And no group understands that equation better than Muslim women. That is why they are always amongst the first to go out on the streets to fight for their future. |