If Not Now, When? An Urgent Call to Support The Iranian Women’s Struggle for Freedom

What is our obligation to act when a brave few put their lives at risk standing up to tyranny?

On September 16, 2022, a courageous group of Iranian women took to the streets, outraged over the Iranian Morality Police’s killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for the “crime” of wearing her hijab too loosely. The authorities have killed hundreds of people since. Yet the protests have expanded, throughout Iran and beyond, and they show no signs of abating.

All these brave Iranians know full well the potential danger their actions pose to them and especially to those still living in Iran. But they are persisting in their calls for freedom.

Scores of European and Middle Eastern entertainers, politicians and governments—including Israel—have similarly declared their support publicly. But after nearly a month of protests, the leading U.S. women’s organizations and public figures have been surprisingly slow to respond.

Could it be that American women leaders are shying away from forcefully condemning the Iranian Mullah’s heinous crimes out of fear of being branded Islamophobic?

If so, let’s be honest about the obvious. If we truly care for justice, our obligations are clear. American women must immediately support the Iranian struggle against women’s oppression, forcefully and unapologetically.

It is too early to say if Iran is at a tipping point. But there will be no change in Iran if U.S. leaders do not join in a unified voice to support the demonstrators. There is clear precedent, indeed many would say a religious duty, for us to step up when a brave few confront injustice. We need look no further than Queen Esther’s defense of the Persian Jewish community of her time.

But what if the struggle is internal to another sovereign state? Here too there is abundant precedent for us to act.

Take Natan Sharansky’s fight against Soviet oppression of Jewish Refuseniks. In the early 1970s Sharansky was put on trial for the simple act of applying to emigrate to Israel. He responded by speaking out against Soviet oppression and was soon imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of spying. Sharansky’s courage sparked a global movement, and U.S.-Soviet negotiations for his release became a linchpin for the Soviet Union’s eventual dissolution.

The uprising now under way in support of Iranian women’s rights is a Sharansky moment. Life for women in Iran is unbearable. They are monitored in their every movement by Iran’s  powerful facial recognition technology, and they are subjected to medieval rules: They may not work, marry, divorce, travel or even apply for a passport, much less leave Iran to escape their persecution, without a man’s permission; and they can be married off as young as age nine.

What will it take for America to heed the call of the Iranian women for the world’s help? How do we get our leaders to understand the gravity of this moment?

The Iranian Regime is a pariah state. For over four decades it has wreaked havoc in the world, instigating terrorism, armed conflict, refugee crises and nuclear and hostage blackmail. We cannot overlook that Iran’s authority over its own people is precisely how the Mullahs preserve their power to destabilize the world.

The Iranian Regime’s unfathomable brutality on women in their day-to-day lives must not be met by silence, moral equivalencies and conditional support. Our complacency only endangers the Iranians who are now risking their lives in defense of freedom, and enables the Regime to continue coopting the language of human rights for their own purposes. Thus, this cause should be a matter of the highest priority for this country.

We must help our American leaders, especially our women leaders, find the moral clarity and courage of Natan Sharansky who so aptly stated that a regime that spends the people’s money on conflicts and suppression “needs only the smallest spark of freedom to set its entire totalitarian world ablaze.”

Think about it: Wouldn’t it be powerful if Hadassah, NOW, Michele Obama, Oprah Winfrey and all women in political, business and religious leadership started a vocal national campaign in support of the Iranian women’s fight for freedom? Let’s ensure the spark that has been ignited by the women of Iran brings about the justice that is so overdue.

Jessica Emami, PhD, is an adjunct professor of sociology at American University and an expert on Iranian and Middle Eastern human rights issues.