The Legacy Behind Women’s Active Role in the Uprisings
The long line of women, who sacrificed their lives for freedom in the struggle against both Shah and the mullahs, speaks to us today; from Fatemeh Amini, Marzieh Oskouei, and Azam Rouhi Ahangaran to Ashraf Rajavi, Giti Givechian, Zohreh Ghaemi, Sussan (Ozra Alavi Taleghani), and thousands of other pioneering women.
Look at this book. The title of this book is “The Massacre of PMOI Women in Evin Prison in 1988.” It tells the epic story of women who, over seven years in the most terrifying torture chambers, in the “graves,” the “cages,” and “the residential units”, died and were reborn a thousand times, only to rise with heads held high. They mocked the depths of Ward 209 of Evin, emerged as victors from the solitary cells of Gohardasht, reduced the “Death Commissions” to pleading, and on the eve of massacre sang of the tyrant’s demise, making the very walls of Evin Prison tremble.
With such a source of inspiration, Iran’s uprising represents one of the most authentic and significant resistance movements in the world today.
It is with the backing of such a struggle that women are active participants in the resistance and the uprising. Women refuse to be marginalized. They refuse to be treated as second-class. They will not wait for minor, trivial concessions. They demand the full measure of their rights. They seek freedom for their people and their homeland.
That is why they have risen. They leave behind home and families; they bid farewell to their children, loved ones, and parents. They do not fear prison and chains, nor do they tremble when their heads and hearts become the targets of bullets.
Where does such audacity come from? From where do they draw such fearless courage?
It springs from the combat of successive generations of women fighters — from a movement whose more than one hundred thousand members have sacrificed their lives for freedom; a movement that for decades has challenged patriarchal culture and ideology, charting the course of liberty and equality through action. It is guided by a leadership and a philosophy that rejects exploitation and inequality.
This is the cry of over 40 million Iranian women who say: We do not want a patriarchal and oppressive system. We want neither the crown nor the turban. We want neither the Shah, nor the mullahs, nor their heirs.
Indeed, the era of regimes that impose oppression upon the women of Iran has come to an end, whether it be the monarchical dictatorship or the religious one.
The women and the people of Iran demand freedom. They demand democracy. They demand justice and equality, and they will fight for them until the very end.
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