Public Comment

Today, March 8, as I write, it is International Women’s Day. On this occasion, it strikes me as important that we here in the USA take serious note of the dire situations facing women in both Iran and Afghanistan. Indeed, demonstrations today by women in many of our American cities are emphasising the solidarity between women here and women in Iran and Afghanistan. Moreover, women here recognise that the struggles of women in Iran and Afghanistan are part of the very same struggles women face in this country, especially now that Row v. Wade has removed women’s constitutional right to abortion and reproductive rights over their own bodies. 

Over the past few weeks, Iran has recorded mysterious poisonings at some 290-350 girls’ schools throughout the country, causing harm to girls who experience burning eyes, nausea, fainting, and respiratory problems. Quite a few Iranian girls have been hospitalised, and at least two have died. The exact cause of these poisonings, whether by food or by chemicals released in the air, is not yet known. But what is clear is that the extent and focus of these attacks can be no coincidence. In the wake of mass protests lead by Iranian women over the last 6 months, it is clear that these poisonings are either instigated by the theocratic regime itself or at least by its most extreme supporters. And the attacks are clearly meant to punish girls and strike fear in them so they will no longer join or support the mass anti-regime protests, In any case, these attacks are part and parcel of a misogynist regime of the patriarchal mullahs who run Iran’s theocratic government. 

As for Afghanistan, since taking over the government in August 2021 the Taliban has reneged on promises to respect women’s rights and they have barred girls from higher education, barred women from working for government agencies or NGOs, and have banned women from traveling anywhere without a male family member as escort. Women in Afghanistan have thus been confined to their homes where even there they are second-class citizens with no rights vis a vis their male relatives. 

Meanwhile, in this country, on International Women’s Day, KPFA’s Mitch Jeserich aired an interview he conducted with feminist Eve, formerly known as Eve Ensler, who famously authored and performed The Vagina Monlogues. The woman now known simply as Eve spoke of her humility as she began to learn how widespread was the sexual and psychological abuse experienced by American women at the hands of male members of their own families. The structures of patriarchy, Eve warned, are still very much with us in today’s America. It is time we bring this atrocity to an end here, and support its end everywhere, including in Iran and Afghanistan.