Cartoon by Wafa Bassiouni

The world is telling Iran’s regime that women’s rights aren’t optional

By Jason Rezaian

The Washington Post: At a campaign speech Thursday, President Biden briefly promised that “we’re gonna free Iran.” While that isn’t actually part of his administration’s agenda, a growing number of U.S. officials and foreign governments are signaling their intent to further isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran. It’s easy to see why.

This movement in Iran is about many marginalized groups vying for long-denied rights and representation. But it’s the struggle of the women and girls who are demonstrating — and their unwillingness to back down — that have most captured the world’s imagination.

The Islamic republic is a gender-apartheid state. That structure means the regime would be incapable of addressing the demands of its female population even if it wanted to. It also leaves the government horribly unequipped to understand the pulse of the modern world.

To get a sense of how out of touch Iran’s theocracy is, just look at supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s Twitter …

… or this video of Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations refusing to answer very basic questions.

Not only has the regime ignored the rights of Iranian women, but also it has completely misread the world’s increased commitment to gender equality and thus underestimated one of the most powerful political issues of the 21st century. Across most of the globe, there’s nothing controversial or even questionable about supporting women’s rights.

So, of course many of the world’s most influential women have gotten comfortable calling the Iranian women’s struggle a historic fight — and one they aren’t shy about supporting.

That commitment is shining a brighter light than ever on the many atrocities and abuses of power committed by Iranian state forces. Human rights watchdogs say authorities in Iran have killed upward of 300 people and may have already arrested as many at 14,000 protesters since late September.

And a growing number of governments and international bodies are talking about Iran differently.

No longer is the foreign policy establishment’s focus solely on preventing theocratic authoritarians from gaining nuclear weapons. Now leaders are also looking for ways to mitigate the destruction the Islamic Republic of Iran is already causing within its own borders.

The pressure on Tehran will keep mounting, especially as the Islamic republic blindly doubles down on the wrong side of an issue with as much international consensus as women’s rights.

Global opposition alone, however, won’t put an end to the regime’s atrocities, nor will it “free Iran,” as Biden initially said. But it might help fulfill Biden’s quickly revised prediction: that pretty soon, Iranians are “going to free themselves.”