The Feminist Revolution of Iran

 

A revolution doesn´t happen over night but once it happens, it changes the face of the world for ever. The predominantly women-lead movement in Iran manifested to the eyes of the Western world one year ago, during the protests ignited by the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, beated to death by the so-called ´Morality Police´. The regime of the mullahs, who is oppressing Iran for over four decades and keps their population hostage, reacted in full strength, with the desperate scream of a wounded animal that is supposed to die anyway: young people were murdered, tortured and imprisoned. Western ´independent´ journalists trained to support the ´liberals´ aiming for a diluted still theocratic republic, were keen to (des)´inform´ that the ´Morality police´ was abolished and women are freely abandoning the hijab without any consequences, although informed people shared the pressure put on banks, taxi drivers or store owners to refuse serving uncovered women.

Despite the spin of media intoxication, not all journalists of Iranian origin fall for the lures of the mullah servants. Germany, for instance, do have a steady Iranian immigration, dating from before of the Revolution, mostly people committed to refuse theocratic tendencies, no matter how coherent their desire for ´reformation´. The last year protests brought to the forefront journalists, especially women, with good information from inside the country and a strong voice for offering an informed view on the events in Iran. Tehran-born Gilda Sahebi is one of them and I had the chance to listen to her during an event organised this year on the occasion of the Berlin Literature Festival dedicated to the ongoing mentality changes in Iran.

Her book, Unser Schwert ist Liebe - Our Sword is Love, in my own translation - (the title of a song by currently imprisoned rapper Toomaj Salehi) - is an account of the most important events of the last years, with a special focus on the Woman Life Freedom movement. The information cover not only the chain of events and the most important milestones, but also features - anonymously, for obvious security reasons - testimonies of people direclty involved in various segments of the movement, including testimonies of doctors, ethnic and sexual minorities. The book is more than a simple journalistic report, it may help tremendously historians and political scientists to understand the outcome of the movement and eventually to trace its evolution in the months and years to come. 

I hope someone will have the inspiration to translate this book into English or French or any other foreign languages. It adds important information to the nascent literature regarding the democratic movement in Iran, that hopefully soon I will present more on my blog.