Simply over a 12 months after the demise of Mahsa Amini, there are regarding stories {that a} 16-year-old woman, Armita Geravand, has died in Tehran, Iran. There are fears that she might have been crushed to demise by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for not complying with obligatory hijab rules. A clip of {the teenager} being dragged off a practice by different girls has gone viral. Nonetheless, state-run media in Iran declare she fainted after a drop in blood stress.
Right here, we revisit Tara Kangarlou’s highly effective 2022 essay for GLAMOUR concerning the plight of Iranian girls – and the way the world can assist them.
As I write this piece, I’m pondering of the lots of of individuals — younger and previous — who’ve been injured and killed within the ongoing and unprecedented protests in Iran, in addition to the 1000’s who stay in detention nationwide.
I can’t assist however consider the numerous detained journalists, together with Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi of Iran’s Shargh Each day newspaper, who stay in jail — the 2 younger feminine journalists with out whom the world might have by no means came upon about Mahsa Jina Amini and the aftermath of her tragic demise.
I can’t assist however consider Ghazal Ranjkesh, a glowing, 21-year-old, fashion-loving legislation scholar who, after an extended day of research and work, misplaced her proper eye to a rubber bullet while shielding her mom in the course of the protests in Iran’s southern port metropolis of Bandar Abbas.
I can’t assist however consider nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak — a science and engineering fanatic — who was shot killed in his household automotive within the southwest province of Khuzestan and is believed to be among the many youngest casualties of the Iranian authorities’s crackdown towards peaceable protestors.
I can’t assist however consider Mina Jandaghi, a younger psychologist, kids’s rights activist, and former board member of The Society for Defending the Rights of the Youngsters (a Tehran-based NGO), who together with dozens of different kids’s rights activists and social employees has been detained for weeks.
Tragically, this checklist, their names, and their tales can go on.
These persons are my sisters and brothers— Iranians whose hopes and desires, fears and aspirations are not any totally different than that of thousands and thousands of others worldwide. Besides theirs is managed by the oppressive insurance policies of their authorities.
For the reason that starting of the anti-government protests in September — a lot of which continues to be impressed and led by a brand new technology of fearless Iranian girls — I’ve been as soon as once more reminiscing over my life in Tehran— my birthplace that I someday dream to return to with my Swedish husband and youngsters (every time they arrive to this world) — all in hopes of displaying them the greatness of our land, the richness of our tradition, the fantastic thing about our nation; however most significantly, the tenacity, brilliance, and braveness of its individuals.
I grew up with twin citizenship and subsequently had the chance to finish highschool in the USA and go to varsity thereafter. Nonetheless, even after shifting to the US in my late teenagers, I’d commute to Iran for summer season holidays and spend time with my many mates and father (a well-respected doctor), who remained in Tehran till his demise in 2011.
