Masih Alinejad 🏳️, a notable #Iranian human rights defender, has posted a video statement to nine million Instagram followers in which she reads from a letter by the jailed Iranian #Bahai woman Mahvash Sabet and adds her own call for unity in diversity in Iran.
Masih Alinejad points

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Franklin Humanities Institute director Dr. Ranjana Khanna helps makes sense of the world with a humanistic lens. Read the FULL INTERVIEW by FHI’s Assistant Director of Communications Michaela Dwyer!
fhi.duke.edu/blog-post/maki…

Jaw drop! #WomanLifeFreedom

I can't help but feel that we are closer to gender equality in Iran than anything I experienced in Europe or the US. Without a fundamental shift in culture where women are actually respected, there won't be respect for any gender.

To our surprise, the passport control officer started laughing with her. This laugh liberated us in the audience, we could relax again.

Her fearlessness and courage was inspiring. I knew that me and all those watching felt curiously anxious by this act of rebellion that is being yourself. We watched intently, expecting a reaction from the authorities.

I will never forget, the blond short bob hair of this girl, who stepped to passport control on our way out of the country without a headscarf. Confidently moving, the strength of her roots was intimidating.

Is it only when you stand up for yourself that you actually stand up?

I didn't have to fight against a culture anymore. I had my place in it.

These looks spoke more than any words could. Once you experience this respect, there is no going back. This is one high I will be chasing for sure, as we should all.

I never felt less than a man, but western culture knows you as weak, as less, as hysterical, as needy, as losing. The question we deal with in the west mainly boils down to: does she need an intervention to be saved. This in itself perpetuates the victimisation.

this is key anywhere. But matrianarchist is writing about a visit to #Iran #WomanLifeFreedom

But for the first time ever, people, men and women, religious or not, looked at me, and other women, with respect. It took some time to understand what was happening, it took some time to register this shift in perception of the self, from victim and oppressed, to hero.

The highlight for me was something else. The way people looked at me in the streets was nothing like I ever experienced before.

In most places and times I've lived, people are either indifferent to you as a woman, or are interested in you as a woman. There is always a cat call.

But it seemed that the background knowledge of how things can go wrong did not leave anybody's mind. This constant reality check was only in the background though, outweighed by the beauty that freedom brought to the streets and the soul

The emotion of hope is a powerful driver

To be honest, it was slightly scary. I would not let myself fear too much, I would blindly infer to others who know better. I wondered whether that fear was only in me because I did not have the same courage, because I wasn't the same level of warrior

Nobody said anything negative to me during my stay. I got some positive comments by men, women, people with or without scarves, words of encouragement, cheerful.

I felt unworthy of those words, I was just posing for the time of my stay, only refusing to be a passive oppressor.

Some women were carrying their scarves on their shoulders only. Their hair was free but the scarf burdened their backs, the weight of the symbol, its reminder, was with them for everybody to see. They are ready to cuff themselves up if needed. 'We are free but not so free'.

You would also see what appeared to be non hijab believers with a headscarf on. The dissonance there was loud. What separated them from those not wearing it? This question popped in my head each time and I tried to avoid thinking further of an answer. To each its pace.

I followed the lead of my girlfriends and did not wear the headscarf once. Some women did not carry one at all, from all ages. You would see younger girls with crop shirts or t shirts. Sometimes a man with shorts.

You would see religious women covered too.

Throughout my stay, I had to decide whether I was going to wear a headscarf or no. I do not like to cover, but feeling like an outsider, I wondered what was the right behaviour: comfort based compliance to avoid hassle or imitation of those acting in ways I want to support