Feminists Silent on Iran Protests
Something big is happening in Iran. A few days ago, protests broke out and brave women have been taking their hijabs off in protest of the forced dress code. Iran heavily restricts social media, but a few videos have found their way online, like the one of this woman that was posted a day before the protests began.
Masih Alinejad, a US-based Iranian journalist, has been encouraging Iranian women to take photos and video as they walk around in public without the mandatory headscarf. She then shares them to her Instagram.
Strangely enough the major feminist groups are silent on the protests. You can check their Tweets – nothing. Just the same old #resisting and fearmongering over equal pay and reproductive rights.
If ever there was a time to stand with the women in Iran, it would be now. They’re on the brink of a real revolution, yet people like Linda Sarsour (who thinks a hijab is empowering) stayed silent.
Until today, that is. She broke her silence to attack conservative women for standing with the Iranians and tried to somehow tie the protests to Trump’s travel ban, when in actuality, they are about more freedom and less government oppression.
Feminists should be out there supporting these women. Instead, they’re crying about the cost of birth control and “fearing for their lives” under a fascist regime.
-K
