Women. Life. Freedom. Except For Israeli Women?

One year ago, the Islamic regime in Iran murdered Mahsa Amini for wearing her mandatory hijab head covering incorrectly.  

Over the last year, I and many other Iranian Americans marched in rallies throughout Los Angeles for “Women. Life. Freedom.” Iranian-Americans of all backgrounds stood shoulder-to-shoulder to condemn the unbridled violence of the evil Iranian regime. Shervin Hajipour’s Grammy Award-winning protest song “Baraye” touched our souls and brought tears to our eyes.  We spoke in one voice for Mahsa, Shervin, and the countless people in Iran who were voiceless. For a fleeting moment, the entire world was united in this women-led movement for life and freedom.

This evil regime occupying Iran hates women, life, and freedom everywhere. For 44 years, this totalitarian regime has suppressed and butchered Iranian women, gays and journalists. This vicious regime assisted Assad and Hezbollah in slaughtering and gassing a generation of Syrian women and children. This ruthless regime armed insurgents that killed Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. This genocidal regime has, for decades, threatened to wipe Israel off the map and is attempting to develop nuclear weapons to do just that.

Then, on October 7, 2023, Hamas, the terrorist proxy of this same Iranian regime, sunk to a new low — beheading, burning, raping, and kidnapping hundreds of Israeli women and girls. As the leading funder of Hamas, the Islamic regime of Iran undoubtedly greenlighted the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the Middle East.  

Sadly, in response to the mass terrorism of October 7, 2023, the world is no longer united. The Islamic regime has successfully distracted the world’s attention from its own heinous crimes. The regime is using its proxy Hamas to try to break the coalition of conscience that was slowly coalescing behind a singular goal of freeing Iran from the regime’s bloody grips.  

And the regime is succeeding; as I march daily at rallies since October 7, 2023 condemning Hamas and the Iranian regime, I feel alone and abandoned without my fellow Iranian-Americans marching by my side.

All people of conscience must not be distracted or deterred from our shared mission to free this world of evil forces opposed to women, life, and freedom — especially the Islamic regime of Iran.  Peace and freedom in the Middle East are unachievable until the Islamic regime is relegated to the dustbin of history where it belongs, alongside other fascist, totalitarian regimes. 

But this change cannot be achieved alone. Change is only possible if all communities stand together in solidarity and join forces. Our political power is multiplied together, especially in this moment of moral crisis for humanity.

I plead with my fellow Iranians — of all faiths, and activists of all types — to stand against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic regime in Iran. The future of the “Women. Life. Freedom.” movement depends on it. 

I plead with my fellow Iranians — of all faiths, and activists of all types — to stand against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic regime in Iran. The future of the “Women. Life. Freedom.” movement depends on it. Our shared dreams for a peaceful Middle East are at stake.

Neville Chamberlain once said what we all know to be true — that there are no winners in war.

But, unless we lock arms together now, when this war inevitably ends, one winner will emerge: The Islamic regime of Iran.  And we will all be losers.

Leah Yebri is a proud Iranian-American Jewish women who as born in Tehran and who fled Iran to the United States as a refugee at the age of 7.