Posts Tagged ‘Feminism’
Iran: Khamenei accuses United States and Israel of stoking ‘riots’.
Iran protests: Security forces wade in at Tehran university BBC.
There have been violent scenes at a prestigious university in Tehran overnight, as anti-government protests continue to sweep the country.
Reports said a large number of students at Sharif University of Technology were trapped in a car park that had been surrounded by security personnel.
One video appeared to show students running away as gunshots ring out.
The anti-government protests erupted on 17 September, after the death of a woman detained by the morality police.
In his first public comments, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described Mahsa Amini’s death as a “bitter incident” that “deeply broke my heart”.
But he denounced the nationwide protests as “riots” that he claimed had been “planned” by the United States and Israel, “as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad”.
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Of interest to readers of this Blog is this article from the Counterfire site.
Iran protests: ‘Women, Life, Freedom’
“Iranian socialist S Sepehri analyses the revolutionary potential of the demonstrations there against women’s oppression.”
The prospects for a revolutionary movement
“The potential is great. This is the maturation of movements over many iterations. As the crisis of the system has been growing, protests have developed and receded, but the crisis then has come back at a higher level. In turn, the revolt has involved larger sections of the population, or more fundamental issues. And this is how you breakdown sexism, this is how women become empowered, this is how solidarity matures, old ideas breakdown, and the separation of issues melts away. Universality starts to develop. This is how classes become fit to rule.”
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The regime itself has limited options. Really it has one: militarisation of the streets and widespread repression. This will be used against wider society, whether through the guard and security apparatus taking effective control over all government institutions, or, as some fear, a coup to suspend the reformists from making noise, and a suspension of parliament. The latter is less likely since the former is more attractive, but it cannot be ruled out.
This raises the question of what next. The rebellion will not go on forever. A massacre triggered the strikes in 1979. This could happen again, or we could see the protests spreading to workplaces on their own. That would be very hopeful sign. Even if strike action receded for a time, it would not be likely to be the end of the story.
The rulers of Iran are no longer able to govern in the old way, and the people are not willing to be ruled in the old way. This is usually what socialists have posited as the ingredients of revolution, following Lenin. However, this is not an automatic process. However, the role of women’s issues in spearheading and becoming the beacon in the fight against the authoritarian state is a huge gain. Things have shifted massively, ideologically and in the balance of forces in society. There is widespread solidarity, and women are leading a fight which has become a universal and common cause.
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It has to be said that Sepheri’s analysis below is extremely welcome even if she does not go into details of the main target of the demands against the Morality Police: Velayat-e faqih—or guardianship of the Islamic jurist—the system of governance that has underpinned the way Iran operates since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A point worth noting is that this is the opposite of the trajectory for what passes as individual identity politics in the US and the West; that is ‘Identity’ as ‘Politics’. Struggle in the form now appearing in Iran transforms all of us, in a common liberation. That does not erase our individual identity, it empowers and unifies, rather than fragmenting, activism. It clarifies a real sense of who is ‘us’ and who is ‘them’. It opens up the possibility of working-class transformation.
Meanwhile:
History: there is an interesting outline, in English, of the Iranian and international left’s stands during the movement that ended with the creation of the Islamic Republic here:
A POLITICAL MEMOIR Barry Sheppard.
“Barry Sheppard was a member of the US Socialist Workers Party for 28 years, and a central leader for most of that time.” This is from his his two-volume critical memoir of his activism in the SWP.(the concluding sections in Vol 2 concern as Louis Proyect put it, “its transformation into a bizarre cult around Jack Barnes”.
Whatever one may think of the politics of this group Shepard offers in this section a clear account of the Iranian revolution that ended in the Islamic Republic. It offers insights relevant to the presence upheaval.
Volume 2: CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION
1979:
The HKS also initiated an Ad Hoc International Women’s Day Committee to hold a celebration on March 8 of the international holiday. Kateh Vafadari was the head of the committee. Women handing out leaflets for the meeting were harassed and threatened with violence. In response to the women’s demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Committee defend their right to hold a planning meeting on March 3, two armed guards were sent. When about 70 thugs armed with knives broke into the meeting, one of the guards lowered his automatic rifle at the thugs and said, “you take one step closer and I’ll shoot you.” The attackers retreated, but the women decided they couldn’t continue their meeting. As they marched outside, the angriest were the women workers. Many wore the
chador. Raising their fists at the goons, they shouted, “We went in front of tanks! Do you think we are afraid of you?”
There were several rallies on March 8 and thousands attended them. “What sparked the outpouring in Iran,” The Militant reported, “was a March 7 statement by Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini that female government workers could not go ‘naked’ to work” but must wear the chador. “The government had also made statements against equal rights for women in divorce, against co-education, abortion,
and laws outlawing polygamy.” The Ad Hoc Committee changed its name to the Committee to Defend Women’s Rights. As The Militant report noted:“High school women took the lead in the big demonstration that followed these rallies. Thousands of these students had gone on
strike that day for women’s equality. Some 20,000 women marched from Tehran University to the offices of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, denouncing government attacks on women’s rights….
The referendum for or against an Islamic Republic was held March 30-31. The “yes” won, but the referendum did not create general enthusiasm. Foley reported that the Kurds and Turkmenis (another oppressed nationality) did not vote nor did a large percentage of the Arabs in Khuzestan. The government claimed an overwhelming turnout, but Foley, observing the polling stations in Tehran, thought the official figures were inflated. However, a large section of the population in the Persian areas did vote “yes,” he reported.
The pro-Moscow Tudeh Party urged a “yes” vote, a position echoed by the CP in the United States. Writing in the March 21 Daily World, Tom Foley said, “The Tudeh Party in its statement declared its support for the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and for the creation of an Islamic Republic.” In the same issue it smeared the big women’s demonstrations: “…the question of the behind the scenes hand of the CIA cannot help but be raised. It [the demonstrations] has the stamp of their typical handiwork: utilize a legitimate demand in order to disrupt the revolutionary process.” The HKS, too small to mount a boycott campaign, said the vote was undemocratic and explained that the content of an “Islamic Republic” was unknown and left up in the air. Shortly after the vote, Bazargan attacked those opposed to the vote, singling out the Trotskyists. Following his address there was stepped up harassment from the Imam’s committees of activists selling Kagar. One woman comrade was badly beaten in Ahwaz.
See also: CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: IRAN.
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HKS, Hezb-e Kargaran-e Sosialist [HKS] –Socialist Workers Party. Trotskyist.
Militant, paper of the American Socialist Workers Party (not the British ‘Militant’ group whose leading figure Ted Grant, had left the Trotskyist Fourth International long ago).
Today:
Iran Protests, George Galloway ‘asks’, “Is the unrest in Iran payback for the country’s alignment with Russia and China?”
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi :”Set in 1980, the graphic novel focuses on her experiences of growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran.”
The Islamic Republic’s response to the wave of protests in Iran has got grimmer:
Iran protests: at least 450 arrested in northern province
At least 450 people have been arrested in Mazandaran, a northern province of Iran, during the last 10 days of protests, according to the province’s chief prosecutor.
Protests sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini have spread across the country. They have been met with internet shutdowns and violent repression.
The official death toll in the unrest is 41, while human rights groups say the true number is more than 75.
Amnesty International said at least four children had been killed by state forces since the beginning of the protests. It described a “harrowing pattern” of “deliberate and unlawful firing of live ammunition at protesters”.
People have not stopped protesting against the Islamist regime.
The cause is backed by the author the superb graphic novel Persepolis – made into a fantastic animated film.
International solidarity:
The Morning Star has had consistent and excellent coverage of the protests in Iran. Broad sections of the left internationally have backed the demonstrators, although you would not know anything this from Counterfire (pillar of the Stop the War Coalition), the pages of the US populist Jacobin magazine, its subsidiary, Tribune, and alt-left news sites like Novara Media and the Canary.
Perhaps the silent socialists are thinking along these lines:
Nobody is waiting to hear the result of this ‘poll’.
This is what we should back:
International Solidarity with Iranian Protests after Murder of Mahsa Amini.
“At least 35 dead in eight nights of protests, Iran state media report.” Guardian.
Iranian Women at the Frontline of Change
By Aghileh Djafari Marbini, Hosnieh Djafari Marbini and Sue Lukes
(Aghileh is a Labour Party member and an Iranian political activist. Hosnieh is a Labour Councillor and her city’s migrant champion. Sue is a Labour Party and human rights activist.)
The unlawful death of Mahsa Amini is an example of the violence that prevails against the Iranian people and Iranian women in particular by their own government.
Mahsa and her brother were visiting family in Tehran but were from the city of Saqqez in the Kurdistan region. On September 13th, 22-year-old Mahsa was arrested by the Iranian regime’s notorious morality police because her headscarf was not sufficiently covering her hair. Mahsa’s brother was told she would be taken to a detention centre to undergo a ‘briefing class’ and released shortly afterwards. However, she arrived at Kasra Hospital shortly after and died on Friday September 16th, after being in a coma for three days. What happened between the arrest and her arrival at the hospital is not clear.
Read full article via link.
Fourth International:
Woman! Life! Freedom! (also on Anti Capitalist Resistance).
A SHORT REPORT ON IRAN’S CURRENT PROTESTS.
In the years that the people of Iran have lived under the flag of tyranny of the Islamic Republic, they have faced all kinds of repressions and violence. With the inauguration of Ibrahim Raeesi as president in 2021, the executioner of the 1990s who led the murder of thousands of militant activists, including socialists and feminists, the level of repression has become even more than before.
Women, especially women of ethnic groups, religious minorities, the working class and urban poor, are among the groups that have experienced the greatest amount of oppression. Each of these groups is facing various economic, social and political crises, and at the same time, their very daily life is marked by resistance. Women are experiencing a myriad of oppressions, of which the mandatory hijab is one of the main forms.
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What is the essence of the recent protests? One can find this in the slogans that have been used by the protesters around the country: Women! Life! Freedom! I will kill those who killed my sister! Death to the Dictator! (Islamic Republic) Emancipation is our right! Our power is our collectively! Bread! Work! Freedom! …
20 September 2022
While many on the left are already standing with the Iranian protesters, from (in the UK) Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP, the writers of the above article on Labour Hub, to groups like Anti-Capitalist Resistance and the AWL, other part of the left have difficulty in coming out in support for the women in in Iran. Gender theorists like Judith Butler, who has defended the veil as a form of ‘resistance’ and ‘agency’, those who claim that feminist opposition to the covering stems from “white saviour” colonialism are finding it hard to come to terms with the Iranian revolt. The British Socialist Workers Party, which has defended and continue to defend the hijab as a choice, and that “It’s really about the freedom of wearing it or not wearing it.” have the same difficulty.
How can they react to demonstrators who defy the head-covering, some of whom publicly burn the hijab? How can they explain that this is not about ‘choice’ but a religious legal system which imposes its rules on everybody, and has the claim to divine truth and the ambition to be a model for the whole world?
The problem remains: those who think ‘modest dress’, including covering the hair, though in some Islamic opinion the full body must be covered modestly, is not just a good thing, an option, but a religious duty, do not think it’s a ‘right to choose.’ but a duty before god. When they have a legal system to back their faith up in commands that originate from something unseen, whose words are transcribed in a book only believers hold as a guide to life, and they find that not everybody agrees to change their behaviour, how many will stand up for those with a different view?
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Iran’s legal system and the morality police (gašt-e eršād)that enforce ‘modest dress’, are not individual choices. The are part of the foundation of the Islamic Republic. They are there to make Islamic Law and the Iranian system of Velayat-e faqih—or guardianship of the Islamic jurist— real. The compulsory hijab extends to non-Muslim women.
When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power some on the left, not least in Iran itself, argued for the need to stand in solidarity with the ‘anti-imperialist’ regime. The nature of that theocratic dictatorial state has long been settled, not least after its bloody crackdown on the left in 1998.
Between late July and September 1988, the Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed thousands of prisoners for their political opinions and dumped their bodies in unmarked individual and mass graves. Minimum estimates put the death toll at around 5,000.
Since then, the authorities have tormented the relatives by refusing to tell them when, how and why their loved ones were killed and by keeping their remains hidden. To reinforce secrecy, they have also destroyed mass grave sites and forbidden commemorations.
By refusing to acknowledge the killings and fully disclose the fate and whereabouts of the victims, the authorities have committed the crime of enforced disappearance under international law.The anguish caused to families by this ongoing crime constitutes torture.
Update: London Protest:
Tendance Coatesy 