Featured image: (Pacer graphic / Miranda Conrad)
When you think of freedom, you often think of America, the land of the free.
In this country, we live without fear of the government putting us in prisons–if we choose to use these freedoms. As a woman raised in America, I always have faith those rights are guaranteed. I choose what my style is; I can walk through the quad of our own UT Martin without campus police stopping me for what I wear or say.
This freedom we have isn’t abstract; it’s a way of life, which is why the revolution in Iran matters.
The ways of life in Iran vastly differ from our own ways of life. The women fighting in Iran are not fighting for political trends or for attention from the news; they are fighting for the most basic human rights. The movement “women, life, freedom” started because police took down a 22-year-old named Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended and then died in police custody because she allegedly broke hijab laws, igniting protests everywhere.
The Iranian dictatorship has enforced strict interpretations of religious law through legislative stunts. According to the Quran, Sharia law requires the covering of a woman’s body through the hijab. While the strictness of this law varies by country, the principle of said law remains the same, with countries like Nigeria, Malaysia, Bosnia and Turkey proving that religious traditions do not need to be strictly enforced.
Iran has gone in a completely different direction. This law isn’t just an expression of faith; it is one enforced by violence. Iranian women have been beaten, jailed and abused for breaking these laws. International human rights organizations have demonstrated multiple arrests, unlawful abuse of women and even executions.
This phenomenon has been enforced on the young population demanding freedom. There is even evidence of security firing live rounds into protest crowds.
As a woman and an American college student, the differences could not be more blatant. I can speak out against my college, challenge our political leaders and live my truth, in contrast to Iranian women who risk expulsion from university, torture or even death for speaking against the regime. The one thing tyrannies are fearful of is their people tasting freedom and wanting more, which makes their chokehold on society more fragile.
American students, especially women, cannot afford to look away from this. The freedoms we have as a way of life, we refuse to surrender them; the women’s revolution in Iran is doing just that, facing the tyranny of the dictatorship that tells them to follow a religion that they didn’t choose but were raised into. Ignoring their fight doesn’t make us neutral; it makes us submissive and comfortable.
American rights are never free. The freedom we enjoy today wasn’t handed down peacefully. They were kept and preserved by spilling blood for this country. It was through protests, fights and bloodshed that this country is what it is today, and Iran is going through this today, but the Iranian youth have made their choice. They stood up, knowing what would happen if they did.
Freedom isn’t an automatic guarantee; it is only in place if there are people who are willing to die and bleed for it, name the enemies we have and stand with those who thirst for their own freedom. The real question comes down to this: Are you willing to spend your own blood to help those who want freedoms, or do you stay comfortable in your own?
