#MahsaAmini. This is one of the many hashtags related to the Iranian Protests that have been taking place for the last 14 days. With each new day, comes more and more horrifying developments like the restriction of the internet and the deployment of child soldiers. The protests have garnered plenty of attention with people from diverse parts of the world attempting to show their solidarity with the people of Iran. However, while it is extremely easy to see red due to the atrocities being committed, it is important to remain level-headed when trying to discuss injustice. Oh but spoiler alert this whole issue is simply because the Iranian government refuses to allow women to dress. In today's edition of D&D, we will be looking into who exactly is Mahsa Amini, the background of Iran's Harsh Dresscode, the breakdown of the Morality Police and figure out our role in this whole conflict. (Because let's be honest that's what it is)
Mahsa Amini is a 22-year-old girl who was detained by the Iranian Guidance Patrol(a special task force dedicated to arresting people who violated the Islamic dress code). She died while in their custody. The government claimed that she suffered sudden heart failure while at the station but eyewitnesses saw that she was beaten and her head had slammed against the side of the police car during her arrest. On top of that, the official reason for a heart attack did not explain why the Autopsy report came back showing death due to cerebral hemorrhage. The final straw was when her father received her body and it was covered with bruises. The circumstances of her death made her a martyr and hence exposed the undercurrent of burgeoning resentment for the Iranian government's rules on dress code.
Now to truly understand the magnitude of this situation, recognize that the Women of Iran have been fighting since 1979 when the Iranian Supreme Leader mandated that all women must wear Hijabs. The very next day(International Women's Day) thousands of Iranian women marched in protest. In 2014, there was an online movement called "#MyStealthyFreedom" where Iranian women would post pictures of themselves online without the government-mandated hijab. But these are just flashy examples. When Esha Momeni released a documentary on Iranian Women activists as well gathered 1 million signatures on her petition to reform discriminatory laws against women, she was kept in solitary confinement for a month at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. These kinds of injustices have been taking place for decades increasing anger. Mahsa Amini's death merely helped to materialize the anger by giving them a focal point.
Now, the question of the hour is, What is the Guidance Patrol? Having been founded in 2005, its primary purpose is to enforce the Islamic Dresscode and they report to the supreme leader directly. Although they also monitor the attire of the men, their usual targets are women. In 2014, over a span of 3 months, there were over 220,000 women were arrested and brought to the station. The procedure goes like this. First, they will position themselves in busy public places(Shopping Malls, train stations, and bus stops) and watch for any female that deviates from the standard. They would then violently slap and baton beat the offending women and push them into police vans. The women are driven to a correctional facility or police station, lectured on how to dress, have their photos taken by the police and personal information recorded, required to destroy any "bad" clothing with scissors, and generally released to relatives the same day. If you still do not realize how obsessed the Iranians are with the dress code, in 2015, they stopped women for it and impounded their cars. In 2016, they used 7,000 undercover guidance patrol operatives to catch women. All this time, resources, and effort, were spent trying to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.
At this point, recognize that the women are no longer just fighting for the right to not wear a hijab or even just for the right to dress. They are trying to get back all the rights that have been unfairly stolen from them. From the rule where women are not allowed in sports stadiums during male sporting events(which if you think about it is basically every important sporting event). This was out of the belief that it was women's duty to raise children and not to watch sporting games. Women are not even allowed to ride bicycles if a man sees that it will lead to crimes including sexual offenses, financial crimes, spiritual infidelity, and religious disobedience. Before Marriage, it is even commonplace for the man to make the women take a virginity test basically discarding them if they "failed it". Hence, it is the generational anger and being denied these basic freedoms and being treated as second-class citizens compared to the men that have brought these women out in force.
However, where should the anger be directed? There are many bad guys here. The guidance patrol is at the end of the day just pawns in the game. The supreme leader and his fellow bureaucrats are the ones that enacted these laws and created these organaisations in the first place. Everyone is just following the rules and hoping not to get punished. According to BBC's interview with a member of the guidance patrol, the majority of the force are conscripts. They are just young men serving their time and they were taught that the reason we are working for the morality police units is to protect women. The belief is that if they do not dress properly, then men could get provoked and harm them. It is a flawed logic but it was inculcated within them since young. They were literally taught to use force when bringing the victim into the van and they are scolded by their commanders if they do not identify enough people who violated the dress code. Does all this absolve them of guilt? No. What they have done and what they are doing is still wrong. The difference is that they are unfortunately not in control of it. They are just following orders. As surprising as it sounds, humans are docile creatures. When orders are given from whom they perceive to be an authority, even if it is against their own morals, 97-99% would still execute the orders. Recognize now that the real change has to take place at the top, if the person giving the orders cared more about women's rights, this would not have happened as much as i hate to say this the guidance patrol were just doing their jobs. The average person would do the same in Iran.
Know the enemy. That was the point of the previous paragraph. This applies to everybody, not just the Iranians protesting but also the people outside of Iran. There have been a series of attacks on Iranian embassies all around the world. In Oslo, there were protests outside the Iranian embassy with a violent crowd trying to actually enter the embassy and 90 people were detained by security forces. In London, 12 people were arrested after there was a clash between protestors and the police. The protestors were protesting outside the Iranian embassy and there were bottles and other items that were thrown at the police. This resulted in more than 5 police officers being hospitalized with injuries like broken bones. There was even an attack on the Iranian embassy in Athens where there were Molotov cocktails hurled at them. The problem here is very simple. All these people are very overzealous in their protesting and they really want to do their part for the cause, the alternative is that some of these protestors just wanted to stir up some trouble. For the latter, I have no solution but for the former, they need to recognize who the enemy is. As mentioned earlier, the only person capable of effecting change is the Supreme Leader. Their attacks on the embassy are not going to change anything. All it is going to do is reinforce the Iranian government's position. People fail to realize that this style of government is an autocratic one, hence they are not about to cave to a bunch of international activists. They are going to see this as an external influence and try to shield their country from it by digging their boots even deeper into the sand which is one of the reasons why they shut down the internet.
At the end of the day, this is an internal conflict. The people of the country themselves will decide how far they want to take this. As of this moment, 76 people have been killed during the protests. There appears to be no end in sight to the protests. There is no way for the people to engage with the government for change because they have no leaders. With no leader, there can be no form of talk between the 2 sides, and this protest will eventually either drive the country into chaos or fizzle out until the next Mahsa Amini incident. Either way, it is out of our hands. If there is one lesson to take out of this, it is that your power as a leader is decided by the people that you are leading.
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