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The world is witnessing a historic struggle in Iran. Feminists and workers are fighting for “Women, Life, and Freedom” following the State’s murder of Mahsa Jina Amini, a Kurdish woman who was beaten and found dead in police custody after being accused of improperly wearing her hijab. This is a mass movement against attacks on women and the working class, and against police violence towards oppressed communities such as the Kurdish Saqqez that Amini herself was a part of. Coupled with the outrage against Amini’s custodial death, the protests have also been fuelled by dissatisfaction over exploitative economic conditions which have been worsened by anti-people policies at home, along with imperialist sanctions against the Islamic regime in Iran.
Political Turmoil and Economic Trajectory
This is not the first time the people of Iran are rising. In fact this follows a long history of political turmoil beginning with the 1953 removal of then-Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The subsequent entry of the US-backed Shah regime began a period of imperialist intervention, anti-people politics and a devastating rise in reactionary forces across the country. While Western propaganda painted the regime as one of freedom and peace, in reality the Shah’s government served imperialist forces and spelled a life of economic hardship for the Iranian masses. The 1970s were witness to several protests by varied sections of the population, including workers, students and teachers. While some sections consisted of secular, progressive elements, some were led by Islamist groups. Ultimately this culminated in the 1979 Iranian revolution, as the Islamist groups seized power after the Shah was ousted. Though the Islamic regime portrayed itself as anti-imperialist, its rule has been one of absolute repression. Economic policies adopted by the regime have benefitted the elite sections of society and any space for dissent has been violently crushed. Coupled with this there has been curtailing of women’s freedom as the authoritarian regime has strengthened a patriarchal order.
The 2010s have seen a series of upheavals against economic conditions and corruption in Iran, which have had varied stakeholders from teachers to railway workers to oil workers along with women’s groups. While many of these protests have been restricted to urban centers, the pivotal moment came in 2019-20, when several regions saw militant uprisings which were responded to with brutal repression resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 protestors. The immediate trigger for the protests was a rise in fuel prices as well as oppressive taxation policies which favored the elite. Yet significantly, groups have also highlighted how the rapid adoption of neoliberal policies in the form of privatization of state-owned enterprises, rise in subcontracting firms, short term contract jobs etc., have played a role in contributing to political and economic unrest.
Feminist Resistance in Iran
All the while, feminist groups in Iran have opposed Islamic fundamentalism along with imperialist and neoliberal policies in the various struggles from 2010 to the present moment. Strikes against compulsory veiling have been held repeatedly in schools as well as universities, with progressive female students expanding demands to combat fee hikes and government corruption. As women across the country gather to burn their hijabs and cut their hair in public, it is important to recognise that this is not merely a fight for or against a piece of clothing. The fight is against patriarchal oppression, the Islamic regime, and western domination all at once.
In November 2021 for instance, the Iranian government passed a ban on abortion, greatly curbing access to birth control. This action was taken to encourage “Rejuvenation of the Population”, given that Iran is facing a rapidly increasing aging population and significant drop in fertility rate to merely 1.8. This in turn has been brought about partly due to massive rates of unemployment and hunger, with thousands of families in Iran simply unable to afford childcare. The fight for right to abortion in Iran thus becomes one against not only the patriarchal order of society and moralistic impositions of the Islamic regime, but also against steadily worsening economic conditions brought about by imperialistic policies.
International Solidarity
As the world looks on, the question of international solidarity, its role and nature, remains pertinent. The current moment of upheaval is also being used by the United States to impose more sanctions on Iran. These new measures have been placed on Iran’s “morality police’’ who killed Mahsa Amini and are ruthlessly attacking protesters. This institution certainly deserves no sympathy from the progressive forces. However, the nature of sanctions means that even when this economic warfare is supposedly placed on just one institution, it disproportionately hurts workers, women, and oppressed communities like Kurdish people, a point which has been argued by several organizations in the movement which are battling western propaganda alongside a repressive regime at home. Groups have cautioned against the policy of interventions in the name of encouraging human rights, citing unequal harm of such interventions. Imperialism directly strengthens patriarchal control and weakens progressive struggles. The current movement has also seen the introduction of revolutionary imagery in protests, chanting of revolutionary slogans and anti-imperialists songs and iconography, which is a new and promising development, according to groups on the ground. Moreover, workers councils (showrahs) have also been mobilised again, with oil workers threatening to strike with potentially grave effects on the Iranian republic. Today, there is a need for those forces struggling for equal and dignified conditions of life to intensify their own struggles against imperialist forces in true solidarity with the struggling people of Iran. The real struggle today is not for reinstating a US-backed puppet regime, or simply against the Islamic rulers. Protestors have declared “No Mullahs, no Shah, just Democracy”.
