Iran: we must support these heroines

BETTING À DAY

The observation is undeniable. Contempt, hatred and violence against women are gaining ground. To varying degrees, misogyny strikes everywhere. We even feel that she is entering a dangerous phase of “normalization”.

Despite major advances, what is in fact being attacked is the fundamental right of women to equality. This right, as we can see, is never really acquired.

In the United States, millions of women have lost their free access to abortion. Feminicides, including in our country, are on the increase.

Domestic violence in all its forms – physical, sexual, verbal, financial or psychological – is still rampant.

In several countries, female circumcision – a barbaric mutilation of women – is still practiced. In their homeland invaded by Russia, Ukrainian women and girls are raped, beaten or killed by Russian soldiers.

In Afghanistan, with the catastrophic withdrawal of the United States, women and girls are handed over to the Taliban.

On the planet, there is also extreme verbal violence on so-called social media against women who, publicly, dare to speak out.

Even the pandemic has hit women harder. Very present in the health and education networks, they have borne a large part of the burden.

Left to their own devices, many caregivers have also paid the price financially or on their own. health.

Our eyes are glued

Our eyes are now on Iran. Since the violent death of the young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the “morals police” after her arrest for “unseemly dress”, rebellious women have taken to the streets.

In this Islamic republic which treats them as under -human, they lead a heroic fight. They fight for their freedom lost since 1979 under Ayatollah Khomeini, including that of whether or not to wear the veil.

In reality, they fight against this obscurantist control of men over their lives. They fight for their complete freedom: sexual, professional, clothing, etc.

Chased, beaten, arrested or killed by the police, they do so at the risk of their lives. Under the powerful slogan “Woman, life, freedom!”, they burn their veils, cut their hair or shave their heads.

At the risk of their lives

Brave young men also join them in the streets to shout their solidarity. Unheard of in the hell of the ayatollahs.

But what to do from afar? Also cry out our solidarity. In Western and Northern Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States, demonstrations in support of Iranian women are multiplying.

In Paris, demonstrators even chanted to their president: “ France, silence is enough!”

Because in the face of Iranian tyrants, heads of state must express their support for these women of unimaginable courage.

If it is true that no one will save the Iranian women from the claws of their executioners, in front of their boundless determination, all silence becomes complicity.

These women are fighting for their right to freedom and dignity. They do it for themselves and for future generations.

They also do it for the rest of the world. Their fight, make no mistake, is universal.