How can we help put an end to the morality police?
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
This topic is very important to me. Currently in Iran the Morality Police are taking women into custody and beating them harshly. This has sparked global discussions; people outside of Iran are protesting for the freedom of women. I feel strongly about the freedom of women and believe that everyone should be speaking out in their own way to help the women in need of help against the Morality Police.
The Iranian government has enforced a law that states: in any public place women must cover their heads with a headscarf properly, wear trousers or a floor length skirt and a long sleeved tunic or coat that reaches the knee. People have no say against the government’s strict rules and they can barely spread the news. A news article by The Guardian shows some sites that have been blocked. It stated that, “Access to platforms such as Instagram and whatsapp,” is no longer possible in Iran.
The biggest problem is that lots of social media sites have been banned preventing the news from spreading easily. This has stopped many people from spreading the news and is now in need of us outside of Iran to protest against the morality police and stop this protest. We could threaten to draw sanctions against them stopping their huge companies from making any profit outside of Iran. Although we don’t have the power to draw sanctions ourselves, we can still make a difference by boycotting Iranian stores, products and many other things. This could make a big change.
We could also make more news platforms (with pro fact checkers) to spread the news even faster to the rest of the world. If we can make a big difference these protests will stop and the iranian government will need to stop the morality police as if they are used again then we will protest even more and the same thing will happen. We, together can make a huge difference so join the protests and help.
Gender inequality is everywhere. It is important that we realise that it is in the UK too. Louise Burke on the 8th of october posted an article about the gender pay gap on pocket money she stated: that from a young age, boys earn pocket money as a reward for academic achievement or manual chores Whereas girls are more likely to receive their pocket money for house chores (14% more girls are rewarded for traditional ‘home making’ chores like cooking and washing the dishes than boys).
We need to challenge stereotypes and ensure girls everywhere have equality with boys.
Comments (2)
I agree because I can remember an instance exactly like this in my country, the president band the use of twitter in Nigeria to restrict people from saying certain things, people had to download vpn's and things like that to communicate. I mean if the leaders are so blameless why are they trying to control the things that people say. The ideology that women are second class citizens is really harming, the demand for their freedom is really alarming they need help I mean they have neighboring countries and what are they doing about it, what are they saying about the issue I mean the women can't speak for themselves because everything becomes worse so what are people doing about it. Men and women of various ethnic backgrounds have marched under the banner of women’s rights, and they are not being heard, what exactly is happening, what is the world turning inti, it seems like the more we try to make progress in women rights someone comes along and destroys it all. I mean people in Iran have had it, schoolgirls are taking more courage than others, hundreds more have been killed I mean we are all human this is not right. NO ONE IS LISTENING. what is the government doing, we need as revolution to be honest. Women have been fighting against compulsory dress code for decades and are now defying it as an act of resistance by simply going out to live their lives without the hijab. While the dress code is the most visible form of discrimination, it is just one aspect of the discrimination they face, I mean the list goes on, from forced labor to economic struggle to human rights to unequal access to opportunities we face it all, when is this all going to stop, we need progress and not estimated ones that come in the future, we need immediate progress at all costs.
The issue of abuse of the rights of Iranian women has gotten out of hand. Women now are not even allowed to use social media. There is report by Wikipedia that women have been jailed in Iran for singing and for posting on social media and this is unacceptable. It is an infringement on the Iranian women's fundamental human right to freedom of speech and expression. There are ways we can help the Iranian women. Some of them include:
1.) Donating: We can help Iranians by donating to help them. There are several non-profit groups that we can donate to so that these Iranian women receive help. An example is the Iranian American Women Foundation is an Iranian American national nonprofit membership organization that accepts funds to aid their platform for empowering, networking, and mentoring younger generations of Iranian women in the U.S. and across the world. There is also another human rights organization called The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). It works to protect human rights in Iran by researching and documenting human rights violations across the country as well as disclosing them to the public to bring about change. Donating will go a long way in helping the Iranian women.
2.) Joining protests in your local area: Even things as simple as joining protests in our local area can help Iranian women. The truth is that though some people may see this issue as something that might not affect them. The truth is that it affects us. All of us. Most especially us women. This is a case of inequality among women. We ought to stand up and help our fellow women when they are in trouble. It is a responsibility for us a women and as global citizens to help each other.
3.) Use your voice: We can also help b sharing this information so that more people are aware of what happened to Masha Amini and what is happening to Iranian women in general. It would go a long way in helping. We can use hashtags like #mahsaamini, #iranprotests, #iranprotests2022