‘Ready to be next, but not the last.’ This is the message 17-year-old Sima, a young woman from Tehran, has been writing on her bedroom mirror in lipstick each evening over the past fortnight. She has been adding a victory sign, before then heading out to join protesters in towns and cities across Iran, determined to overthrow the nation’s autocratic, Islamist regime.
It is impossible to overstate the bravery of Iran’s protesters. Men and women, united in opposition to the dictatorship, have taken to the streets in defiance of the threat to their lives. More than 500 people are now estimated to have been butchered at the hands of the Ayatollah Khamenei’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Thousands more are thought to have been injured so far. Reports suggest hospitals are overwhelmed with victims of police shootings.
None of this has stopped women from joining demonstrations. ‘I am not afraid’, one female protester is filmed saying. ‘I’ve been dead for 47 years.’ Her arm is raised in defiance, as blood drips from her mouth and on to her chest. Akram Pirgazi, a mother of two, was the first woman to be killed by police in this current state clampdown.
The protests began just before Christmas. Yet for almost a fortnight, mainstream Western media largely ignored the Iranian women risking their lives daily, protesting on the streets of Iran. Only now, with bodies piling up, are headlines being made.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member