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The Islamic regime in Iran has dominated for many years with worry 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. Read 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 assist 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 beneath. I’ve additionally added some context and hyperlinks in parentheses the place acceptable.
WHAT MATTERS: This publication will not be normally targeted on Iran. Can you first simply clarify what’s taking place?
ALINEJAD: Mahsa Amini was solely 22 years previous. … She got here from Saqqez to Tehran for a trip. Then she bought 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 individuals whether or not their means of carrying hijab is correct or not.
Mahsa was arrested for carrying inappropriate hijab. So she was not unveiled.
(Here is a CNN report during which the Iranian police deny the allegation she was crushed.)
ALINEJAD: That created large anger amongst Iranians. And that’s the reason girls 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 in opposition to the dictator and they’re saying we would like an finish to the Islamic Republic.
This is a revolution.
To me, this can be a girls’s revolution in opposition to 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 hearth, they actually opened hearth on youngsters, faculty leaders, college college students, they opened hearth on unarmed individuals.
Now some stories say greater than 130 individuals have been killed. But it’s strongly believed the quantity is far more than this. Only in Zahedan on solely at some point, they opened hearth on those that have been praying. Who have been praying. They killed greater than 80 individuals in Zahedan.
(CNN has not verified all of those claims. Related CNN report: Iranian safety forces beat, shot and detained college students of elite Tehran college, witnesses say.
Amnesty International has reported on the killing of 66 in Zahedan together with different deaths recorded elsewhere.
Regarding 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 forestall the remainder of the world from attending to know concerning the crackdown, to get to study concerning the variety of individuals killed.
But once more. That didn’t cease individuals. Actually, it modified the tone of the protesters. They grew to become extra offended. They have been holding the names and images of those that bought killed and the main slogan was this: ‘We are ready to die, but we won’t reside beneath humiliation.’
One of the younger girls whose title was Hadis Najafi, she was solely 20 years previous. She made a video of herself strolling on the street and saying I’m becoming a member of the protests. In the longer term, if I see that Iran has modified, that change got here, then I used to be proudly a part of this demonstration. She bought killed. There are a lot of them.
(CNN has reported that Najafi’s household mentioned she was shot six instances and by no means made it house from a protest. She was 23. There are stories of a number of younger girls killed. Here’s a CNN video report on Nika Shahkarami, whose household discovered her physique at a morgue after not with the ability to discover her for 10 days following an Instagram story of her burning her scarf.)
Students filmed themselves burning their headscarves, however they bought killed. But murdering and killing didn’t cease the protests. Instead 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.
(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’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 girls that you simply see within the streets, they’ve been combating again obligatory hijabs alone. Like lonely troopers. I personally have printed movies of ladies being crushed by morality police beneath the hashtag #mycameraismyweapon. I actually need you to go and verify this hashtag. Brave girls filming themselves whereas being harassed by morality police and trying to the morality police and saying that you simply can not inform me what to put on.
Slavery was authorized. I’m not going to respect dangerous regulation in Iran.
This is being constructed up by girls inside the society practising 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. This is the start of an finish. It takes time. It jogs my memory of the revolution 40 years in the past. People have been taking to the streets for like one month and have been going again house after which coming again once more. The nationwide strike helped rather a lot. For me and hundreds of thousands of individuals, that is just the start to an finish.
The obligatory hijab isn’t just a small piece of fabric for Iranians. It’s just like the Berlin Wall. I hold saying that. If girls can efficiently tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic gained’t exist.
Maybe within the West, individuals ignore me and so they by no means take this significantly. But the Supreme Leader 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 we have taken action against her.’
(Alinejad shared this video of Khamenei on Twitter, during which he refers to US political parts making the comparability to the Berlin Wall.)
ALINEJAD: But it’s not me. It’s hundreds of thousands of people that imagine 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 imagine that now persons are being fearless and clear that we need to break this weakest pillar of the Islamic Republic… I strongly imagine that the largest risk to the Islamic Republic are the ladies who’re main the revolution, who’re dealing with weapons and bullets and saying that we would like 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 important to organizing protests. Here within the US, it’s typically seen as a risk to our democracy as a result of that’s the place misinformation is unfold. I ponder in case you had any ideas on that dichotomy.
ALINEJAD: Let me be very clear with you. Right now, the tech firms are literally serving to the Islamic Republic. First of all, Iranians are banned from utilizing social media – Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are filtered. The leaders like Khamenei and different officers who ban 80 million individuals from utilizing social media, all of them have verified accounts. They have a number of accounts on social media. Basically, the Iranian regime reduce off the Internet for its personal individuals, 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 will not be verified by Instagram or Twitter. Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark. A spokesman for Meta mentioned this in an electronic mail: “Iranians use apps like Instagram to stay close to their loved ones, find information and shed light on important events – and we hope the Iranian authorities restore their access soon. In the meantime, our teams are following the situation closely, and are focused on only removing content that breaks our rules, while addressing any enforcement mistakes as quickly as possible.”)
WHAT MATTERS: The US authorities has tried to extend Iranian’s entry to the web. Is that working?
ALINEJAD: Oh, in fact, that is phenomenal. But we’d like extra. We want extra.
The factor is, on the identical time, the US authorities, we’re happy that they’re offering web entry for Iranians. This is nice. We respect that.
But on the identical time, the US authorities is targeted on getting a deal from this regime, the identical regime.
They condemn the brutality, they condemn the Iranian authorities for killings, however on the identical 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 trade for abandoning nuclear weapons functionality. Recent talks, nevertheless, haven’t gone properly. Read 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. But they’re actually clearly asking the US authorities to not save the Iranian regime. …
People imagine that the cash goes to the good thing about the individuals. It doesn’t go to the individuals. The cash goes to Syria, Lebanon, to Hamas, Hezbollah, to terrorist organizations.
For hundreds of thousands 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 positive that the Iranian regime is stopped killing its personal individuals.
(CNN isn’t in a position to verify that every one the cash goes to terrorist organizations or that none of it goes to Iranian individuals. Iran does fund terror teams exterior its borders, in keeping with the US authorities, and its personal Islamic Revolutionary Guard is a terror group, in keeping with the US authorities.)
WHAT MATTERS: I need to speak about one other dichotomy you’ve identified. You wrote in The Washington Post that feminists everywhere in the world want to concentrate and take to the streets.
ALINEJAD: You can not name your self a feminist within the West, in America, and never take motion on probably the most 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 an alternative take to the streets to point out their solidarity with the ladies of Iran. When the Women’s March occurred right here in America, like each single feminist around the globe confirmed solidarity. I used to be a part of the Women’s March in New York. The important slogan was ‘my body my choice.’
But on the identical time I’m witnessing that in relation to Iran and Afghanistan, evidently my physique my alternative will not be as vital as it’s within the West.
(Here Alinejad mentioned girls 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 Forum occasion in New York with different dissidents from Russia and Venezuela. Those are two locations which can be repressive, and so they’re additionally funded largely by oil. The US needs extra oil in the marketplace. I simply questioned in case you had any bigger feedback to make on this query?
ALINEJAD: This is what’s lacking right here. The dictators are extra united than our freedom fighters.
Let me offer you an instance. Just 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. But we the liberty fighters, we the opposition to those dictators should be united as properly, as a result of once we battle in opposition to autocracy or dictatorship on our personal, we’re not going to achieve success.
(Alinejad mentioned 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 combating only for ourselves. I’m not combating only for Iran. Garry Kasparov will not be combating for simply Russia. Leopoldo Lopez will not be combating only for Venezuela. We are combating 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 useless.” 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 Commission on Women’s Rights and Russia sits on the Security Council.)
ALINEJAD: We must have our personal various United Nations, the place all the nice individuals get united, not the dangerous guys. Now the dangerous guys are profitable as a result of they’re serving to one another. So that is the time that every one the nice individuals who look after freedom and democracy get united and have their very own society.