As we watch events in Iran unfold today, consider this essay by Lila Ghobady about the realities of what the events in Iran mean to women and why she did not vote in the election:
Why didn’t I vote in the latest elections for the president of the country of my birth, Iran? Because no matter who is the president of Iran, they would stone me!
As a woman whose husband refused to divorce her when she escaped the country and came to Canada as a refugee, I am considered this man’s wife as long as I am alive.I would be lashed in public, raped in jail and stoned to death for selling my body in order to bring food to my family, as so many unfortunate Iranian women have been forced to do, as a single mother with no social assistance in a rich but deeply corrupted country like Iran.
No matter who is the president of Iran, I would disappear and be found dead (if I was lucky) if I were to keep writing and demanding my basic rights as a woman and intellectual who has no say in politics.
No matter who is the president of Iran, I would not be able to be a judge or even a witness in court, as a woman.
No matter who is the president of Iran, I would be lashed in public if I did not cover my head and body in public in compliance with the mandatory Islamic dress code.
In the spirit of the above cartoon, we will continue to blog the events in Iran. As I have noted previously, there are several excellent sites for up-to-the-minute news out of Iran, they include:
Nico Pitney’s live blog on the Huffington Post
Zahra Rahnavard’s Facebook Page (she is the wife of Hossein Mousavi)
And via Nico Pitney’s blog comes this phenomenal music video by Weapon-X with inspiring and amazing lyrics and photos:
And lastly, a reminder that protests on other issues are taking place elsewhere:
The Burma Campaign UK today called for an intense diplomatic effort to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, after she was detained in custody in Burma’s notorious Insein Jail.
