All Hail Iranian Women!

What strikes me again and again is the women, many women, many courageous Iranian women holding banners and "V" for victory and gazing at us from pictures and videos from post-elections protests in the streets of Tehran. In night videos of Iranian cities where people shout Allahu Akbar from rooftops, the loudest voices are of women.

Photo from Internet (sorry for not recalling the source)

Here is what Roger Cohen of the New York Times writes:

I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”

Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.

The next day after infamous Iranian elections OL! Youth Movement and CinemAN, a cultural offshoot of Alumni Network, the doyen of all modern youth movements in Azerbaijan screened the film Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. And after the screening, I talked about Persepolis, post-revolutionary Iranian politics and of course, Iranian women:



All hail the Iranian women!