One year after the killing of a young woman in police custody, Iranians—rich and poor, male and female—refuse to give up the fight, writes Masih Alinejad.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure that many American (Western) women really have much interest in the horrific lives that women in other parts of the world endure. I'm not saying a woman should quietly accept injustice in the West, but if the myriad organisations (and individuals) who profess to be fighting for women were truly sincere, they'd be on the front lines battling and raging for women (and young girls) who are treated as chattel instead of trying to cancel and attack men (and Western culture) who are (mostly - not all) not the misogynists and "toxics" we are accused of being.
Right. For American “feminists,” leftist ideology trumps all concern for the treatment of women anywhere. Not only are American feminists silent about the enabling of the brutal regime in Iran, but we hear nothing from them about the plight of women abandoned to the Taliban by our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Why? Because raising the alarm would shine a harsh light on Obama/Biden’s awful Mideast policies.
As an example, the feminist party, Dems, knew bill Clinton molested and raped women but the feminist party supported him anyway and the Dem/feminists and their sycophants in the press called bill's victims, HIS VICTIMS, bimbos and with glee said that Hillary was head of the bimbo alert squad. She and her pals were to intimidate the victims to not come forward. Hypocrites!
I remember that time. I was so disappointed in those women. I remember Barbra Streisand in particular calling Monica a crass name in supporting Clinton
I remember being in college in the NE and seeing Hillary sit there and “meekly” say she supported her man. I was beyond disgusted bc at the time, I voted for Bill and could t believe the behavior of these “feminists “.
It is and they tend to vote for a regime - and it is a regime - here that for reasons that make no sense to me is hell-bent on rewarding Iran's totalitarianism. Years and years ago when the odious Hillary Clinton supported the Palestinian cause I remember thinking "[L]ady you are not going to do well in a burka". Of course I was younger so did not understand what she was supporting is a rigidly enforced class system ruled by elites who do not follow the rules and laws imposed on the masses. Now I understand that is utopia for HRC and those like her.
After 9/11, my best friend had a conversation with her California-dwelling lesbian aunt. It was her aunt's belief that it was *wrong* to resist by force if Islamists tried to take over the U.S. Apparently her own plan for surviving was becoming part of a harem where she could have sex with her fellow harem-members.
My best friend and I were mindboggled that someone could actually be that detached from reality.
Exactly, from California. Don't you know when the world was created and rolled over the crazies rolled over to California. One the funniest jokes I heard when I was a teenager. I'm sure I butchered the original joke LOL
The tolerance for Islamists among the LFBT crowd baffles me. Being gay is punishable by death under Sharia law to this day and it happens everyday. How are they okay with this?
Being on the left means you don't have to be logical. If the left are such feminist, how can they love Islam the way they do? Are they ignorant or just stupid or both?
It's all about the hatred of Israel. Islamists want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. So do Leftists. The Left's hatred of Israel is far, far stronger than any dislike of Islamists' hatred of homosexuality.
And Iran is so enlightened on this subject! Homosexual people can avoid being executed by submitting to trans surgery. Evidently as long as your body has some semblance of the correct "parts," you aren't really homosexual anymore.
Oh, and another thing, Lynne, Iran is the largest supporter of international terrorism. They fund Hamas and Hezbollah. And the left loves Iran. The left loves anybody who wants to destroy Israel.
Which, as a freedom loving classical liberal a/k/a conservative baffles me. Other things that have baffled me are becoming imminently clear. I hope this one does without a bang, if you know what I mean.
Another thing, we are trading all this cash to Iran for people who are imprisoned in Iran.
This will sound cold but what in the hell were they doing in Iran in the first place. It's like US citizen arrested in North Korea. If you are dumb enough to go to a country run by whacked out dictators, don't cry to us to bail you out. Stay in their brutal prisons. You are cleansing the gene pool.
It is cold but life requires cold, calculated decisions on some occasions. Same with that recent Gitmo flap. But in the Iran situation what they are doing is rewarding bad behavior. Pure and simple. I am sure the Iranians are already scouting for new hostages.
Lynne, you know when it comes to Jimmy Carter, I am not objective at all. This whole mess can be laid right at the feet of that amoral, lying, despicable, scum sucking pig, Jimmy Carter.
The Shah of Iran was not only our ally but was trying to soften Islam in Iran and to westernize the culture. Women were allowed to wear western clothes, drive cars and attend university.
The Shah was a dictator but all the governments in the Middle East are run by brutal dictators. There are two exceptions, Israel, whom the left hates and Turkey is a democracy but a brutal one.
Jimmy Carter (dirt bag) stabbed the Shah in the back because Jimmy claimed to be the human rights president (What a lie!). Carter in effect removed the Shah from Iram and put the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in to run Iran. Khomeini is a hard core, brutal, Islamic fundamentalist. A brutal murderous asshole. An asshole, the swinish human rights president, Jimmy Carter, loved.
And that is the same regime Obama and the ever senile Biden loves. It wouldn't surprise me if Obama, the messiah, and the ever senile Biden weren't sitting in the Oval Office sharing a joint when the messiah said, in a squeaky voice, "Hey Joe, let's let the Islamic fundamentalist Iran get the atom bomb."
I am with you. I would add every time I see one of those whiny twenty-something memes about but-but-but-Boomers-just-don-t-understand-how-bad-we-have-it, I think actually Boomers are the ones who do understand it. Which is why many of us vote for candidates with policies that will help them, not enslave them, as meanwhile they vote for what feels good.
The Shah was the result of the coup orchestrated with American and British influence in the late fifties, I believe during the Eisenhower years. The (elected) leader of Iran at the time, Mossadeq, was considered a threat to Western interests and we feared he was too fond of leftist ideals, like nationalizing the oil industries or, perhaps, willing to do business with the USSR. In his place came the Shah, who was no sweetheart, but as the saying goes "he's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." I think the Shah's days were numbered prior to the election of Jimmy Carter. Yes, he tried to westernize Iran, but his secret police were notoriously brutal and I don't know how the poor and middle classes faired under his rule. The westernization alienated large swaths of Iranian society, which opened the door to traditional hardliners like Khomeini. It was a classic tale of blowback and a consequence of short term gains, which has been a salient attribute of America's foreign policy for a long time.
Except for Israel, all of the Middle East countries are run by brutal dictators. It has been that way for thousands of years. So, we might accept that fact and have one of these assholes that is our asshole.
I don't know a lot of detail on the subject, but I think the Shah was not imposed on Iran. He was there before, and after, the coup. Iran was a monarchy with a representative parliament. Mossadeq was elected prime Minister, and would have limited the powers of the Shah, among other policies, so he was deposed.
JJoshua, “If they were truly for women’s rights they WOULD be” able to DEFINE WHAT IS A WOMAN!
American female MSM journalists are too WOKE Left to report on much else than “but, but, but Trump” while being cheerleaders for the Biden Crime Family Regime!
This story brings to light, once again, the fact that many women around the world are still considered “chattel property” and must be controlled or disposed of.
Just totally untrue. I’ve been reading about Masih and female oppression in the Middle East and elsewhere for years and years all in the “left wing media” NY Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine etc have been all over these stories. If you don’t know that it’s because you aren’t reading them. Are you curious about women in Afghanistan and how they fared when we pulled out or in the years before we left? For some truly in-depth reporting check this out:
I do not read those anymore but I googled Time magazine references to Masih Alinejad and got two hits; one in 2014 and one in 2023. For New York Times references I got 3 articles and one opinion piece the lady herself wrote (2018 to 2022). For the New Yorker I got one from last year. Hardly stunning coverage for "liberal press". I read about her on TFP when it was still Common Sense. The oft-maligned as being far-right (and worse) Fox News had 14 pieces.
FWIW I am pretty conservative and very much pro-woman. Pro-man too. And pro-family. I am.pretty sure I align pretty closely with both Iranian and Afghan women. I am though constantly amazed at the attitudes of liberal women and their loudly voiced support for women (and a host of other things but women are the topic at hand) and liberal votes for an idealogy that does not reciprocate that support. I could write you a book on how and what but since this topic is Iranian women specifically it is perfectly illustrated by Obama's appeasement of Iran and Biden's - releasing billions of dollars to a nation bent on nuclear destruction. If you have never done so, you should read On the Beach. I am a proponent of religion. I am a proponent of Islam. I am not a proponent of religious nut cases being armed with nuclear weapons. A rousing round of kum ba ya is not going to work with those folks and the world will pay the costs.
As for hijabs and burkas I am not a fan. But too many American women have their heads covered by their asses and really need to pull them out and try to see the world as it is, not as they imagine it to be.
These are the same American feminists that support the rights of men in dresses over the rights of actual women, so it doesn't surprise me one bit that they don't care about the rights of women elsewhere.
And to allow them in women’s personal spaces. The same folks who tell us “men have no place in women’s issues” are welcoming men into that place. Another entry in the encyclopedia of hypocrisy.
These “same folk,” these women, liberal women hardly exist in the real world. Perhaps a loud voice on social media here and there magnified all out of proportion, distorted, and distilled in some media and the mouths of some politicians. I don’t know these women, although most women I know are
liberal. I don’t read what they write, though I read widely. Most of us, and I mean us (you all and I ) agree more than you know. Or would respectfully disagree. What’s the point of all this? For fun? Letting of steam or just the opposite, the joy of getting all riled up?
Thanks I guess. Not sure what your pount is though. I can, have, and will likely in the future, search/ed both ladies.' My comment was directed to the insinuation of the original commenter that if you read the right, IOWs left, publications you would be better informed. I just pointed out the fallacy in that.
Those same frauds are pushing unrestricted immigration and go weak in the knees over the "call to prayer" being broadcast in NYC - the very city that felt the sting of Islamic fundamental terror. And "we" didn't sucker the women in Afghanistan and then leave them to the Taliban. That was our government and their security state. Which the left now embraces.
I think a few tried, but it won't happen in a huge wave because that would be calling out the contradictions and complexities in intersectionalism (if we call this regime out, we then appear to be criticizing the religion, and that religion fits neatly into our intersectional matrix. Many of us predicted this - when you rely on inter sectionalism, what happens when groups belonging to the class seen as disadvantaged, start to conflict?. Happening already (women and traditional women's safe spaces, LGBTQ+ vs. certain "marginalized" religions, women vs. oppressive and abusive fundamentalist religious regime.
Leftist, liberal here - saw this coming for some time.
Wishing the writer of this piece/activist luck with this cause. Seems she has been waving the flag for awhile and she seems more courageous than many.
Obviously if something becomes big enough news, those outlets will (grudgingly) cover it. It’s not what people are talking about here - which is that American feminism has become a decadent postmodern wasteland of navel gazing with very little actual consideration of real women’s issues, especially outside of America.
I once sat through a dinner party where two idiot "feminists" regaled the rest of us for hours (literally) about how outrageous it was that the Washington Post used the color pink in their cover design for some special women’s article or something. I’m quite sure those two spent precisely zero time in their lives worrying about the plight of actual women in Iran or Afghanistan. To keep abortion legal on demand up until birth, they would have been on their knees in front of Bill Clinton just like that (in)famous so called journalist.
The mainstream media IS the leftwing media. The mainstream media supported the leftwing lie that Trump colluded with the Russians and that Hunter's laptop was a Russian plant. The mainstream media are an unpaid propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. I'd call that leftwing. Wouldn't you?
The mainstream media are an “unpaid propaganda arm of the Democrat Party”? Oh, I don’t think so. On the contrary, they and their fellow travelers, including house organs that purport to be Republican, are paid very well by the millionaires and billionaires that have spun a web of dark money to shut down alternative voices, as Matt Taibbi et al. have tried to point out.
The commenter I was responding to appeared to be conflating the two. Indeed, according to many comments I read here, they are one and the same. What would be left wing in your view? MSNBC? The Nation? Vox?
Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein (a NYT opinion writer), Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its explanatory journalism. Vox’s media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show on Netflix.
A huge issue why the left/liberal/strong activists in the US will not take this issue on in major numbers is that it would be calling out the contradictions in intersectionalism (if we call this regime out, we then appear to be criticizing the religion, and that religion fits neatly into our intersectional matrix. Many of us predicted this - when you rely on inter sectionalism, what happens when groups belonging to the class seen as disadvantaged, start to conflict?. Happening already (women and traditional women's safe spaces, LGBTQ+ vs. certain "marginalized" religions, women vs. oppressive and abusive fundamentalist religious regime as is the case in Iran).
Many of us (liberals) clearly see this. You seem to take on the issue of abortion as a litmus test for the effectiveness of the left. That's not enough - the current left is making a huge mistake setting up its worldview as a hierarchy of oppression vs. one giant enemy on the right. It's so naive and ineffective.
Maybe we could invite them over for an afternoon in Martha’s Vineyard? Where they will be greeted with “We Support Iranian Women!” welcome signs, hugs, pita sandwiches, and group photos to be published in the Vineyard neighborhood newsletter, before herding them onto buses headed to the airport with boxes of canned goods and #GirlPower T-shirts.
Just back from visiting friends in the Vineyard- house rules are that politics can never be discussed- the host’s wife is so fragile she can’t bear to hear anything negative about the Democrat party & its crooks. 😂True. Last time we visited- 5 years ago - she had a meltdown and asked her husband to inform us that she couldn’t take it. In subsequent years, they have asked us to come back and visit (we’re lovely and generous guests. also true), but we declined. This year, we said yes because she was in Europe. The husband is not as neurotic as the wife. That said, there’s more than enough room on the island for a few dozen illegal migrants. Lots of BLM and rainbow flags to greet them.
If we are to believe them, mental health statistics show people of her political persuasion are more fragile and therefore more prone to mental health issue than the opposite, including independents. Unfortunately you learned a valuable lesson on intolerance and “trigger warnings” the hard way.
That's kind of dangerous ground to be playing on. The initial wave of #MeToo was criticizing guys like Harvey Weinstien -- who aren't *quite* as bad as the Iranian Morality Police, but certainly not worthy of any defense. I agree it's metastasized into "believe all women" which can - and is - misused by liars. But the initial #MeToo movement was nothing but a positive for humanity.
Equating Weinstein with the Iranian terrorists is just plain silly. And you clearly forget the crowd who cozied up to him when he was on top - all Democrats. All fatuous frauds.
Except if you were Tara Reade and accusing Biden. Somehow, it was no longer believe all women. The MeToo movement was silent on this one, because they are frauds and partisans.
Christine, you are correct + the outrage, labeling & effort to censor J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter author) JUST BECAUSE she refused to denounce being proud to be a female!
She NEVER disparaged the Trans movement. Period! But we all know that IF you voice your opinion, and it goes against the WOKE Left narrative, you are to be CANCELLED!
Right wing neo con "democracy and freedom spreaders" are equally hypocritical. They also talk a lot about human rights, but in the end they are only pursuing their own economical and geopolitical interests. I'm afraid the oppressed in this world can only liberate themselves and their best hope is that western hypocrites of all sorts will leave them alone instead of forcing their own agendae on them and their just fight.
Masih writes of the Iranian men’s soccer team in standing silence for the national anthem — a powerful protest against their brutish government for which at least one was hanged. Fast forward to August when Megan Rapinoe and her gal pals stood in defiance against her oppressors. Pathetic, and TeamUSA got just what it deserved.
The US soccer team isn’t the same without Carli Lloyd. Besides being a prolific, yet humble scorer, she was the only US player who refused to kneel to protest “racism” ahead of the bronze medal match against Australia during the Tokyo Olympics. The same leadership qualities she displayed by standing during all previous games.
The courage she displayed in standing alone to express her love of country doesn’t get the press it deserves. Worse yet, she has been pretty much been erased for not bending the knee before the mob.
Meanwhile Rapinoe, who was never good enough to scrape the shit off Carli’s shoes, gets plaudits for trashing the very country that provided her the opportunity to become rich and famous. Hopefully that fame has been replaced by infamy for being the chump who missed the entire goal on a penalty kick and eliminated her team from the World Cup. Maybe if the goal was as big as her mouth she might have managed to at least put it on net.
Actually, Brittney Griner was very, very careful with her comments afterward. She tried hard not to sound ungrateful, but she also never actually expressed any appreciation. It's my impression that her attitude toward the U.S. hasn't actually changed.
I agree, Celia! The irony is, once these hater/anti Americans gets a taste of what it’s like in other countries, rather than come home & kiss the ground being thankful for our freedoms they take right back up where they left off.
Yes I was surprised the article didn’t mention that one was hanged. So tragic. And we continue to give money to these murderers. All else aside - the Obama/Biden’s Iran policy is reason enough to vote for anyone else!
I don't know what saying their names would do. It is terrible what is happening here and in Afganistan, but unless you are going to raise an army or fund one, this is all meaningless. I remember reading why Gandhi was so successful. Yes, he was powerful and pursuasive, but he also was dealing with the leaders of the West. If this was done with Stalin, no one would have heard about him. My point is the Mullahs and their heavily armed goons, don't care either. And until anyone has a plan to how to stop it, and that will mean revolution, and what to replace it with, this is just feel good dreaming. I admire her courage but to what end?
The problem is not to raise an army or fund one against Iran, but to stop supporting the Iranian army, secret police, weapons development, etc. that will be done with the $6 billion. Everyone including the mullahs of Iran have acknowledged that this is not going to go humanitarian aid.
The idea of humanitarian aid is also a lie. If Iran only spent the money for just food, it would provide support to the military (directly or indirectly by making more food and other resources available). Bottom line, the US is a very generous supporter of its enemies.
Iran’s Raisi himself said that they’ll spend the money however they wish. Anthony Blinken knows this - his “humanitarian use” canard is strictly for domestic consumption.
The accurate description is "aiding and abetting" not "humanitarian use". Blinken's deal provides the finances that enables Iran to have both guns and butter. It is a betrayal to those serving in the Navy's 5th fleet operating in the Persian Gulf and a further insult to all those serving in the US military.
Absolutely correct. The fact that the MSM doesn't call him out on that after Raisi's repudiation of his comments is.... (substitute "astonishing" with "unsurprising").
It will take amplifying democrat kowtowing to Iran like blinked Biden and Kerry do so well. It will take protests from democrats about giving them money. It’s just not going to happen.
I'm old enough to remember when a popular uprising ended the regime of the Shah. That was unfortunate in my opinion, but maybe it can happen again. There are more people than morality police.
Let's not forget the many, mostly black, and almost exclusively Islamist nations where slavery is STILL practiced. Nobody on the Left cares. Not on their radar.
We define insanity differently. I define insanity as granting authoritarian power to infantile losers and sociopaths then arresting or at least censoring everyone who complains.
And abortion remains legal pretty much everywhere, and in many States the laws are much more lax than in most of Europe. Oregon has no rules at all, so de facto infanticide is legal.
To the point today, does the open and murderous misogyny of the Iranian theocracy botheryou, or is your hate reserved solely for the freest, most liberal system in human history?
Jennifer, the author of this piece that we are reading and talking about is focused on saving women’s lives, to stop them from being tortured over their clothing, murdered for speaking an opinion. Abortion is completely irrelevant to this discussion. Why are you veering so off course?
Actually, I will wonder aloud: once France falls to the Islamists, how long do you think your abortion rights will be protected? People of the sort discussed in this article are increasingly in charge of your streets.
Only people like Marine Le Pen are objecting with anything close to the appropriate vigor, and people like you call her racist and fight her at every turn.
But self evidently the people you support by default, in opposing Le Pen, oppose nearly everything else you claim to stand for, including democracy, the rights of women, freedom FROM religion, and free speech. It's a match made for idiots, by idiots.
Eben, as the Germans say. I HAD already answered that question. But I certainly have no issue with you confirming it in the only way you could.
Well, if your whole world revolves around the right to the easy murder of a child you conceived irresponsibly, then I suppose the smallness of that world is probably the most suitable punishment for your blatantly callous hypocrisy.
Jennifer, your Democratic Party is not centrist at all. The US does not have a centrist party and hasn’t for years. Terrible ideas and practices happening in Canada as well under the guise of equity. What normal person would ever want to go into politics now? The Biden government supporting Iran is inexcusable, nauseating.
In the US, abortion IS legal, depending on the State and depending on "any " health problems. Seems, up to the people and not the baby, which makes Most everyone happy. thanks.
I do not treat men like that. I have a simple rule for everyone I interact with - treat me with respect and I'll reciprocate. Treat me with disrespect and I'll initially reciprocate but if that does not work I'll remove you from my life. I too feel that Western men are under attack by some women/groups/ideologies and have been for decades. Personally I think that is why the nation is at its weakest/lowest point in my lifetime. But it is not all women/groups/idealogies and I think you give the ones that are of that bent power when you see women as a monolithic group. After all, that is what the women you are complaining about do - treat/see all men as bad, toxic . . ..
The United States government has only coddled Iran, with progressives at the head of the line to kiss the derrieres of our worst enemies—terrorists, tyrants, criminals against humanity, enemies of all that's best in the world.
The Iranian people are more pro-American than perhaps any other population in the Mideast.
And yet we do nothing but strengthen their oppressors.
Current so-called "Feminists" have nothing in common with Women's Rights Heroes of Yore. These "Feminists" despise women; they despise femininity, they despise everything that makes us who we are. They do not represent us - they will not even IDENTIFY us...
but Women care. Women rise up, Women defend, Women
represent what Women need. They are doing it now. Look at what they are doing in Iran, now -
The World must stop devaluing Women at the behest of "Feminists" who hate Women.
The Mullahs and their IRGC "revolutionary" guard are the preferred Islamofascists of the Western feminists like Cortez, Omar and the hollywood me toos. Bearded muscular strong manly men, marching in strict formation with firm fully loaded erect rifles...it makes the average Western feminist wet.
I concur, as I have also been following and reading Ayaan for years. This is not a feminist issue, nor does it have anything to do with the #metoo movement. We are discussing women who are brutalized by an entire culture that views them/us of being unworthy of having a “free” life, or sometimes no life at all. I truly believe that men are terrified of women. We must step up to the plate!
Actually we are discussing US reaction, particularly US women's reaction. As such the things which inform American women are relevant. I agree that it is not about feminism, rather about a humanitarian crisis. To me trying to couch it as "feminism" or more accurately what some American women have contorted that to mean, does the issue a serious disservice. American feminists support Biden and he is funding the regime directly responsible for the egregious mistreatment.
I would say, rather than feminism, supporting the need for women's freedom in much of the Islamic world is humanism. These women are considered less than human, possessions much like a donkey or truck, and worth less than either.
Masih, I have been following you since you started writing. You are an awesome inspiration for women all over the world and I applaud your efforts and dedication to bringing Iran’s complete lack of freedom and equality to the forefront of the news. It must be incredibly difficult for you to live a life in hiding just because you are a woman. I’m in your corner.
I’ll never forget the reaction a senior partner in my architecture firm had when the sale of Rockefeller Center to a Japanese investor group in the ‘80’s was finalized on Dec. 7th.
He was a naval aviator in WW II and he looked like he was ready to hop in his fighter and do a kamikaze mission into the imperial palace in Tokyo. We see history through our screens, not in our guts (of course, I’m writing this in my bathrobe with a cup of coffee listening to “Rhapsody in Blue”, but…)
Much in the way that we all know that Biden’s a teleprompter reader and not a charismatic leader, reporters and anchors are just doing the bidding of corporate sponsors and ad salesmen - uh - salespeople.
Until we get back to truly digging in and doing the work necessary to be true to ourselves and then to our communities and the world, we’ll just be internet proles (Oooh - that just popped into my head - good one, Tim!).
I agree. One of the stunning things to me about this article was the reference to fearless Iranian journalists to which I thought "If only we had a few of those here". But instead yesterday's TGIF lauded a journalist for finally reading allegedly objectionable books years after the allegation (which he had previously dismissed as right-wing).
Biden has no moral core - he accepted bribes, he’s a plagiarist, he constantly fabricates where he’s been and what he’s done - yet 81 million Americans supposedly voted for him. It doesn’t say much for the American public. I am sure these 81 million people are okay with unfreezing Iranian assets.
I’ve been begging TFP to do a deep dive on this issue. It’s much more nefarious than Blundering Biden and his corrupt cronies. It dates back to Obama’s “Realignment” policy of strengthening Iran to weaken Israel. They don’t like the Israel-USA alliance that empowers Israel. in their eyes Israel is colonial/imperialist/racist etc and must be put in its place; shifting middle eastern power to Iran and away from the US will “put Israel in its place” or if Iran has its way, simply eliminate it, as they’re fond of chanting.
Michael Doran has written extensively about this and he’s been interviewed in many podcasts (you can Google his name but here’s a piece he wrote for Tablet laying it out: https://www.tabletmag.com/contributors/michael-doran). I wish I could scream from the rooftops that there is a much bigger plan in place here that focuses its ire on Israel. Once you see that it all makes sense.
I really wish more people paid attention. I couldn’t understand why the US was pursuing this policy so aggressively until I read about Realignment and now it makes perfect sense.
If a culture’s imperative is to murder women for not wearing head scarves, who are we to say it’s wrong? I thought it was off limits to criticize “cultures” different from our own. When did common human decency become a yardstick for acceptable behavior?
When I was a student at the University of Missouri j-school in the 1980s, a fellow student said just this when I noted my horror at Iran and Iraq sending children into fields to detonate mines. This woman became a reporter.
You make it sound like it’s ok to use children for this purpose.... we live in a terrible terrible world and we spend our energy naval gazing at our own (admittedly horrible) past instead of looking at what is happening today, everyday, across the world to children
FWIW - that storyline about children going in to detonate mines is inaccurate because it removes the "Why?"
Children are less likely to trigger mines because they are lighter weight. The new revolutionary government faced a terrible enemy in Saddam. Those kids were heroes to their nations. War is a calculation of efficiency.
In that war, the USA backed Iraq which had more tanks and used chemical weapons and land mines. Having just executed the army's officers Iran had poor military.
The children were quite effective, which is why they continued to be used.
Thank you for the insights, Spartacus. You’re right if referring to an anti-tank mine, which needs about 350 pounds to detonate. Anti-personnel mines require 35 pounds, about the weight of a toddler. Saddam was horrible. I get it, and shame on us in picking sides in that dispute. But just as horrible was Khomeini for using innocents to do something so barbaric. Oh wait, we’re now (as we were in 1983) in the age of cultural relevance. How chauvinistic of me to have been horrified.
Don’t take my word for it. Take it to German historian Matthias Kuntzell who reported in the New Republic in 2006:
“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. “Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”
"According to the White House, there have been 31 credible threats against my life on U.S. soil over the past year alone." - This sentence is one of the most jarring of the entire article. The fact that America has become so weak and docile to allow another nation-state to reach across our borders and threaten the life of someone we have given sanctuary to is beyond comprehension. 31 times? This is what happens when you socialize with a bully, when you cater and kowtow to someone who continually threatens your way of life.
Can you imagine what our current US administration would unleash against the author if she had recommended setting fire to the vehicles of US federal agencies, as she suggested doing to the vehicles of Iran’s “morality police”? Is the difference between Iran and the US one of kind or degree? Is there anyone left in America who cannot perceive our own relentless drift towards authoritarianism?
And what deal(s) will get made if revolution is to succeed?
I am old enough to remember Shia radicals marching in San Francisco to overthrow the Shah. Harj-o-marj is coming again. But without a fanatical ideology, it's harder to get people to fight.
I also remember the New York press deciding that the islamists in Egypt were the "good guys" and inventing the Arab Spring. It was inventive garbage, entirely divorced from reality.
Now we have this woman. I sympathize. And I am bound up with bigger fish to fry. I am also concerned far more about the health and welfare of the USA. We used to be a better nation.
We used to have excellent, sane public education and paid teachers well . Anyone willing to do the work could attend college and get done with little or no debt. We were a leader in health care.
We built infrastructure second to none. But now we are in a dive to 3rd world status. Our infrastructure is a joke compared to China or Japan. Our health care is the worst in the OECD.. we are the only developed nation that routinely bankrupts our senior citizens.
Remember this? The naive fools that invented the Arab Spring found out what it was really about. And yet, they still support Islamists as if Islam was progressive. More insane bedfellows are hard to imagine.
Remember Anderson Cooper fawning over the Arab Spring? As if people who had fun throwing gay people off the roof until dead supported himand whathe believed in?
I'm not sure when we last had "excellent, sane public education". Going back 40 years, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was released in 1983 by the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. From Wikipedia: "Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing". And: "As implied by the title of the report, the commission's charter responds to Terrel Bell's observation that the United States' educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce".
I don't think that creation of the US Department of Education improved the situation, but I do believe that the start of the decline preceded it. From Wikipedia - "A Nation at Risk":
"The report said that average SAT scores dropped 'over 50 points' in the verbal section and 'nearly 40 points' in the mathematics section, during the period 1963-1980."
I attended K-12 public schools in Chicago mostly during the 1950's. In 1987, U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett claimed that Chicago had the worst school district in the nation. But the elementary and high schools I went to were not bad, despite suffering from the excessive bureaucracy and rigidity that public school systems find it hard to avoid. There was a fairly rigorous curriculum and some pretty good teachers (and some not so good ones). Perhaps the problems in Chicago stem at least in part from the start of the collective bargaining era. From Wikipedia - "Chicago Teachers Union": "The CTU won collective bargaining rights in 1966".
If you haven't read it, I recommend the late John Taylor Gatto's 2008 book "Weapons of Mass Instruction - A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling". It's a scathing, humorous, and slightly loony critique of U.S. public schools.
Thanks for the rec. I will check it out. But I still think creation of the DoEd sealed the deal. If there is anything that should be locally governed it is schools. ( Frankly I think everything but borders and the standing army, plus whatever states collectively cede governance of ( air travel, interstate highways, etc.) should be local.
This is no secret. They chased salmon Rushdie for decades before finally finding him at a book talk and attempting to kill him. He lost his eye but lived and continues to fight. Ironically, it happened in a progressive reading circle where they didn’t want to force people to walk through metal detectors because the optics are bad. So one got in. A Fatwah is very real and they will never stop trying to kill her.
I don't know if withholding money from organizations in Iran is a positive or negative thing. The author here makes a case for it being a positive thing; that the US should be trying economic pressure to encourage Iran to change its practices. The geopolitical counter-argument would be that this would drive Iran into the arms of BRICS, who won't interfere at all with human rights abuses. America needs to acknowledge it doesn't have the economic power that it had 10-15 years ago.
Strange, but I just don't see or hear much in the way of support coming from either
US congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib on how women are being treated so horrifically in Iran (and elsewhere in the Middle East). I wonder why that is...
No. Ilhan Omar and Rachel Talib are, by their religion, bound to support the Iranian religious dictatorship. Religious dictatorship is required by orthodox Islam.
They wear hijab! They are not friends to this woman! She is their sworn enemy. Always and forever. With the caveat that Shia and Sunni Muslims are mutual heretics to each other. The Sunni schism killed every favorite and descendant of Mohammed. Shia are loyal to Ali and governed by a council. Sunni claim the Khalifa title---one man rule: pope, commander in chief, legislator in chief, and chief justice.
Obama/Biden pushing the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal), despite Israel who is in the bulls eye of Iran’s terror campaign saying that it would only delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions while enriching them and allowing them to continue their hegemony of the region.
Trump had it right. Aggressive direct sanctions and indirect sanctions against any country that trades with Iran. Keep the boot on their neck until this horrific regime is ended.
Pallets of cash for the very regime that was killing American soldiers in Iraq. Trump, in contrast, took out Soleimani, the head Iranian terrorist. Obama was a fraud of the worst order. And now he's living in coastal splendor with his own personal (now dead) chef. Funny how that works.
Obama is the first ex president to remain in D.C. after his term. It has been reported that he has regular meetings with high level Biden officials. I don’t know for sure who’s running the country, but it’s clearly not just “the big guy”.
Please understand. It’s not in spite of Israel being in the cross hairs. It’s BECAUSE Israel is in the cross hairs. Israel is they enemy in their eyes so they must empower Iran. It’s very simple.
Why hasn't your cause caught on with the Progs here and in Europe?...the feminists, fake progressive Muslims, the socialists, campus political class, etc.
Moral relativism abounds among the progressives. They don’t feel they can criticize Iran because America is more broken in their eyes. Their moral compasses aren’t just broken, they point only to us.
Masih, if we had a real president - instead of the corrupt, totalitarian, senile thug who sullies our Oval Office - you wouldn't have to fear for your life in America or watch as the Biden cabal sucks up to terrorists. In both Iran and America, we are in the grip of totalitarian zealots who believe in religions of backwardness, hate and intolerance (even though the American version is secular and hates God, too). Just as brave Iranians take to the streets and defy tyranny, Americans will soon do so. And when freedom once again rings in Washington and Tehran, Americans and Iranians can once again be united in liberty.
Thanks to The Free Press for highlighting this heroic woman. God bless her and all those fighting theocratic oppression.
With the award of $6 billion to the murderous regime in Iran, the gutting of Title IX, and the erasure of women’s sports, one wonders how any woman can support and vote for the Biden misogynists.
That we are supporting the Iranian regime is beyond. The shamelessness of our government in all of its affairs, in all of the depredations we allow it to inflict on us and the world beggars description.
Masih, you are a brave woman and a true journalist. You stand up and report the truth, at your own personal risk. Your piece reminded me that we have so few real journalists left in the US, most are just mouth pieces for the Democratic party, and are no better than parrots in a cage.
When the White House sent MSM the memo on how to deal with Republicans and impeachment, I thought why in the world would they need a memo. These hacks have been doing the D's bidding for years.
Be careful; not all is what it seems: "Masih Alinejad is...a significant part of the U.S. influence-peddling machine that has been pursuing regime change in Iran for decades. Her employer, Voice of America Persia, is part of an international network of propaganda-producing organizations originally created by the CIA."
Unfortunately, this administration is apparently hell bent on SUPPORTING the Iranian regime at any cost, even at the cost of women’s freedom. I don’t know what I can do personally but thank you for the article as I didn’t know any of this except for what happened to Mahsa Amini.
"American women should say their names."
Unfortunately, I'm not sure that many American (Western) women really have much interest in the horrific lives that women in other parts of the world endure. I'm not saying a woman should quietly accept injustice in the West, but if the myriad organisations (and individuals) who profess to be fighting for women were truly sincere, they'd be on the front lines battling and raging for women (and young girls) who are treated as chattel instead of trying to cancel and attack men (and Western culture) who are (mostly - not all) not the misogynists and "toxics" we are accused of being.
But but #MeToo?
Liberal women are some of the biggest frauds.
If they were truly for women's rights they WOULD be fighting for women's rights around the world and especially in Iran.
Just think, ALL those female journalists at the big left wing media outlets and practically NONE write about these atrocities.
It's pathetic and truly sad.
Right. For American “feminists,” leftist ideology trumps all concern for the treatment of women anywhere. Not only are American feminists silent about the enabling of the brutal regime in Iran, but we hear nothing from them about the plight of women abandoned to the Taliban by our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Why? Because raising the alarm would shine a harsh light on Obama/Biden’s awful Mideast policies.
To the left, politics trumps morals every time.
As an example, the feminist party, Dems, knew bill Clinton molested and raped women but the feminist party supported him anyway and the Dem/feminists and their sycophants in the press called bill's victims, HIS VICTIMS, bimbos and with glee said that Hillary was head of the bimbo alert squad. She and her pals were to intimidate the victims to not come forward. Hypocrites!
I remember that time. I was so disappointed in those women. I remember Barbra Streisand in particular calling Monica a crass name in supporting Clinton
I remember being in college in the NE and seeing Hillary sit there and “meekly” say she supported her man. I was beyond disgusted bc at the time, I voted for Bill and could t believe the behavior of these “feminists “.
And how many women screeched that they'd happily service Slick as long as he kept abortion legal......
I remember that speech given by a "feminist" reporter say they should all give Slick Wille a BJ for keeping abortion safe.
Amazing!
I don’t even know what that means? Who is Slick?
It is and they tend to vote for a regime - and it is a regime - here that for reasons that make no sense to me is hell-bent on rewarding Iran's totalitarianism. Years and years ago when the odious Hillary Clinton supported the Palestinian cause I remember thinking "[L]ady you are not going to do well in a burka". Of course I was younger so did not understand what she was supporting is a rigidly enforced class system ruled by elites who do not follow the rules and laws imposed on the masses. Now I understand that is utopia for HRC and those like her.
After 9/11, my best friend had a conversation with her California-dwelling lesbian aunt. It was her aunt's belief that it was *wrong* to resist by force if Islamists tried to take over the U.S. Apparently her own plan for surviving was becoming part of a harem where she could have sex with her fellow harem-members.
My best friend and I were mindboggled that someone could actually be that detached from reality.
Well Da! She's from California. That says it all.
Exactly, from California. Don't you know when the world was created and rolled over the crazies rolled over to California. One the funniest jokes I heard when I was a teenager. I'm sure I butchered the original joke LOL
Now that is twisted.
and sick
The tolerance for Islamists among the LFBT crowd baffles me. Being gay is punishable by death under Sharia law to this day and it happens everyday. How are they okay with this?
Being on the left means you don't have to be logical. If the left are such feminist, how can they love Islam the way they do? Are they ignorant or just stupid or both?
I go for both.
It's all about the hatred of Israel. Islamists want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. So do Leftists. The Left's hatred of Israel is far, far stronger than any dislike of Islamists' hatred of homosexuality.
And Iran is so enlightened on this subject! Homosexual people can avoid being executed by submitting to trans surgery. Evidently as long as your body has some semblance of the correct "parts," you aren't really homosexual anymore.
Oh, and another thing, Lynne, Iran is the largest supporter of international terrorism. They fund Hamas and Hezbollah. And the left loves Iran. The left loves anybody who wants to destroy Israel.
And the United States of America.....
Well, after all, we are a brutal, racist, police state. If you don't believe me ask a leftist.
Which, as a freedom loving classical liberal a/k/a conservative baffles me. Other things that have baffled me are becoming imminently clear. I hope this one does without a bang, if you know what I mean.
Another thing, we are trading all this cash to Iran for people who are imprisoned in Iran.
This will sound cold but what in the hell were they doing in Iran in the first place. It's like US citizen arrested in North Korea. If you are dumb enough to go to a country run by whacked out dictators, don't cry to us to bail you out. Stay in their brutal prisons. You are cleansing the gene pool.
It is cold but life requires cold, calculated decisions on some occasions. Same with that recent Gitmo flap. But in the Iran situation what they are doing is rewarding bad behavior. Pure and simple. I am sure the Iranians are already scouting for new hostages.
Lynne, you know when it comes to Jimmy Carter, I am not objective at all. This whole mess can be laid right at the feet of that amoral, lying, despicable, scum sucking pig, Jimmy Carter.
The Shah of Iran was not only our ally but was trying to soften Islam in Iran and to westernize the culture. Women were allowed to wear western clothes, drive cars and attend university.
The Shah was a dictator but all the governments in the Middle East are run by brutal dictators. There are two exceptions, Israel, whom the left hates and Turkey is a democracy but a brutal one.
Jimmy Carter (dirt bag) stabbed the Shah in the back because Jimmy claimed to be the human rights president (What a lie!). Carter in effect removed the Shah from Iram and put the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in to run Iran. Khomeini is a hard core, brutal, Islamic fundamentalist. A brutal murderous asshole. An asshole, the swinish human rights president, Jimmy Carter, loved.
And that is the same regime Obama and the ever senile Biden loves. It wouldn't surprise me if Obama, the messiah, and the ever senile Biden weren't sitting in the Oval Office sharing a joint when the messiah said, in a squeaky voice, "Hey Joe, let's let the Islamic fundamentalist Iran get the atom bomb."
Joe's response was, a blank stare.
I am with you. I would add every time I see one of those whiny twenty-something memes about but-but-but-Boomers-just-don-t-understand-how-bad-we-have-it, I think actually Boomers are the ones who do understand it. Which is why many of us vote for candidates with policies that will help them, not enslave them, as meanwhile they vote for what feels good.
The Shah was the result of the coup orchestrated with American and British influence in the late fifties, I believe during the Eisenhower years. The (elected) leader of Iran at the time, Mossadeq, was considered a threat to Western interests and we feared he was too fond of leftist ideals, like nationalizing the oil industries or, perhaps, willing to do business with the USSR. In his place came the Shah, who was no sweetheart, but as the saying goes "he's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." I think the Shah's days were numbered prior to the election of Jimmy Carter. Yes, he tried to westernize Iran, but his secret police were notoriously brutal and I don't know how the poor and middle classes faired under his rule. The westernization alienated large swaths of Iranian society, which opened the door to traditional hardliners like Khomeini. It was a classic tale of blowback and a consequence of short term gains, which has been a salient attribute of America's foreign policy for a long time.
Except for Israel, all of the Middle East countries are run by brutal dictators. It has been that way for thousands of years. So, we might accept that fact and have one of these assholes that is our asshole.
I don't know a lot of detail on the subject, but I think the Shah was not imposed on Iran. He was there before, and after, the coup. Iran was a monarchy with a representative parliament. Mossadeq was elected prime Minister, and would have limited the powers of the Shah, among other policies, so he was deposed.
🤣🤣I’m not laughing at everything, only the joint in the Oval Office can you imagine Biden, a blank stare would be considered good!
Lol. I like how you started with Carter, then skipped over everyone and landed on Obama/Biden.
Does Iran have an atomic bomb?
She actually might be better in a burqua. At least we couldn't see her sneering contemptuously at all us deplorable.
I suggest that a burka is one of the few choices that would improve the person in question.
Now that gave me a wicked smirk.
😁
Could not agree with you more. Total frauds.
More concerned about men in drag being able to enter womens' changing rooms than in preventing Iranian women from being beaten to death.
If hell exists, I hope there is a special place for the monsters that dreamed up the idea of shooting people in the eye pour encourager les autres.
You have nailed it!
JJoshua, “If they were truly for women’s rights they WOULD be” able to DEFINE WHAT IS A WOMAN!
American female MSM journalists are too WOKE Left to report on much else than “but, but, but Trump” while being cheerleaders for the Biden Crime Family Regime!
This story brings to light, once again, the fact that many women around the world are still considered “chattel property” and must be controlled or disposed of.
Heartbreaking!
“If they were truly for women’s rights they WOULD be” able to DEFINE WHAT IS A WOMAN!
You nailed it.
The last Biden appointment to the supreme court could not define what a woman is and she was confirmed anyway.
What an embarrassment she is and an insult to young women across America
Just totally untrue. I’ve been reading about Masih and female oppression in the Middle East and elsewhere for years and years all in the “left wing media” NY Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine etc have been all over these stories. If you don’t know that it’s because you aren’t reading them. Are you curious about women in Afghanistan and how they fared when we pulled out or in the years before we left? For some truly in-depth reporting check this out:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-afghan-women-left-behind
I do not read those anymore but I googled Time magazine references to Masih Alinejad and got two hits; one in 2014 and one in 2023. For New York Times references I got 3 articles and one opinion piece the lady herself wrote (2018 to 2022). For the New Yorker I got one from last year. Hardly stunning coverage for "liberal press". I read about her on TFP when it was still Common Sense. The oft-maligned as being far-right (and worse) Fox News had 14 pieces.
FWIW I am pretty conservative and very much pro-woman. Pro-man too. And pro-family. I am.pretty sure I align pretty closely with both Iranian and Afghan women. I am though constantly amazed at the attitudes of liberal women and their loudly voiced support for women (and a host of other things but women are the topic at hand) and liberal votes for an idealogy that does not reciprocate that support. I could write you a book on how and what but since this topic is Iranian women specifically it is perfectly illustrated by Obama's appeasement of Iran and Biden's - releasing billions of dollars to a nation bent on nuclear destruction. If you have never done so, you should read On the Beach. I am a proponent of religion. I am a proponent of Islam. I am not a proponent of religious nut cases being armed with nuclear weapons. A rousing round of kum ba ya is not going to work with those folks and the world will pay the costs.
As for hijabs and burkas I am not a fan. But too many American women have their heads covered by their asses and really need to pull them out and try to see the world as it is, not as they imagine it to be.
These are the same American feminists that support the rights of men in dresses over the rights of actual women, so it doesn't surprise me one bit that they don't care about the rights of women elsewhere.
And to allow them in women’s personal spaces. The same folks who tell us “men have no place in women’s issues” are welcoming men into that place. Another entry in the encyclopedia of hypocrisy.
These “same folk,” these women, liberal women hardly exist in the real world. Perhaps a loud voice on social media here and there magnified all out of proportion, distorted, and distilled in some media and the mouths of some politicians. I don’t know these women, although most women I know are
liberal. I don’t read what they write, though I read widely. Most of us, and I mean us (you all and I ) agree more than you know. Or would respectfully disagree. What’s the point of all this? For fun? Letting of steam or just the opposite, the joy of getting all riled up?
Excellent point.
Lynne, poetic justice...filling way. thanks.
Yes! Thank you, Lynn!
Masih Alinejad
https://www.google.com/search?q=Masih+Alinejad&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Mahsa Amini
https://www.google.com/search?q=mahsa+amini&client=safari&sca_esv=565933642&hl=en-us&ei=mc8FZcHcM5OpptQPid28qAY&gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0zEmPL7BIN6k0YPTizk3MKE5USMzNzMsEAHrLCOs&oq=masah+amini&gs_lp=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&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp
Thanks I guess. Not sure what your pount is though. I can, have, and will likely in the future, search/ed both ladies.' My comment was directed to the insinuation of the original commenter that if you read the right, IOWs left, publications you would be better informed. I just pointed out the fallacy in that.
Not disagreeing with you at all. I enjoyed your substantive comment. Just providing info for interest to anyone, not to counter to you.
Those same frauds are pushing unrestricted immigration and go weak in the knees over the "call to prayer" being broadcast in NYC - the very city that felt the sting of Islamic fundamental terror. And "we" didn't sucker the women in Afghanistan and then leave them to the Taliban. That was our government and their security state. Which the left now embraces.
🎯
There is NO "left" in the US.
I don't understand. Please clarify.
Who was it who said, never argue with stupid....
They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
There is no social conscience in the US therefore there is NO Left wing.
Is this a delusion? I don't understand either.
Thank you. I just don't hear it from the prominent liberal women who are on TV and Radio, etc.
And you won't.
I think a few tried, but it won't happen in a huge wave because that would be calling out the contradictions and complexities in intersectionalism (if we call this regime out, we then appear to be criticizing the religion, and that religion fits neatly into our intersectional matrix. Many of us predicted this - when you rely on inter sectionalism, what happens when groups belonging to the class seen as disadvantaged, start to conflict?. Happening already (women and traditional women's safe spaces, LGBTQ+ vs. certain "marginalized" religions, women vs. oppressive and abusive fundamentalist religious regime.
Leftist, liberal here - saw this coming for some time.
Wishing the writer of this piece/activist luck with this cause. Seems she has been waving the flag for awhile and she seems more courageous than many.
Very good points. Thank you.
I agree Lonesome and TG. Thank you for your comments
Obviously if something becomes big enough news, those outlets will (grudgingly) cover it. It’s not what people are talking about here - which is that American feminism has become a decadent postmodern wasteland of navel gazing with very little actual consideration of real women’s issues, especially outside of America.
I once sat through a dinner party where two idiot "feminists" regaled the rest of us for hours (literally) about how outrageous it was that the Washington Post used the color pink in their cover design for some special women’s article or something. I’m quite sure those two spent precisely zero time in their lives worrying about the plight of actual women in Iran or Afghanistan. To keep abortion legal on demand up until birth, they would have been on their knees in front of Bill Clinton just like that (in)famous so called journalist.
You are talking about mainstream media NOT left wing media.
The mainstream media IS the leftwing media. The mainstream media supported the leftwing lie that Trump colluded with the Russians and that Hunter's laptop was a Russian plant. The mainstream media are an unpaid propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. I'd call that leftwing. Wouldn't you?
The mainstream media are an “unpaid propaganda arm of the Democrat Party”? Oh, I don’t think so. On the contrary, they and their fellow travelers, including house organs that purport to be Republican, are paid very well by the millionaires and billionaires that have spun a web of dark money to shut down alternative voices, as Matt Taibbi et al. have tried to point out.
The commenter I was responding to appeared to be conflating the two. Indeed, according to many comments I read here, they are one and the same. What would be left wing in your view? MSNBC? The Nation? Vox?
MSNBC is a TV show. The Nation is a Newspaper Vox is a far right wing party in Spain!
None of the above. The Nation would be the nearest.
Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein (a NYT opinion writer), Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its explanatory journalism. Vox’s media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show on Netflix.
Vox in Spain is far right.
Vox in America is leftist.
They have nothing to do with each other.
Do you have a point?
What’s the difference they both suck for women.
I don't think so.
Do you really think the Dems. would outlaw abortion?
Leftist liberal here.
A huge issue why the left/liberal/strong activists in the US will not take this issue on in major numbers is that it would be calling out the contradictions in intersectionalism (if we call this regime out, we then appear to be criticizing the religion, and that religion fits neatly into our intersectional matrix. Many of us predicted this - when you rely on inter sectionalism, what happens when groups belonging to the class seen as disadvantaged, start to conflict?. Happening already (women and traditional women's safe spaces, LGBTQ+ vs. certain "marginalized" religions, women vs. oppressive and abusive fundamentalist religious regime as is the case in Iran).
Many of us (liberals) clearly see this. You seem to take on the issue of abortion as a litmus test for the effectiveness of the left. That's not enough - the current left is making a huge mistake setting up its worldview as a hierarchy of oppression vs. one giant enemy on the right. It's so naive and ineffective.
“Do you really think the Dems. would outlaw abortion?”
No, they won’t even outlaw it when it becomes infanticide.
Same thing
The difference being...?
But liberal Western women ‘feel’ your pain 😂
Maybe we could invite them over for an afternoon in Martha’s Vineyard? Where they will be greeted with “We Support Iranian Women!” welcome signs, hugs, pita sandwiches, and group photos to be published in the Vineyard neighborhood newsletter, before herding them onto buses headed to the airport with boxes of canned goods and #GirlPower T-shirts.
Just back from visiting friends in the Vineyard- house rules are that politics can never be discussed- the host’s wife is so fragile she can’t bear to hear anything negative about the Democrat party & its crooks. 😂True. Last time we visited- 5 years ago - she had a meltdown and asked her husband to inform us that she couldn’t take it. In subsequent years, they have asked us to come back and visit (we’re lovely and generous guests. also true), but we declined. This year, we said yes because she was in Europe. The husband is not as neurotic as the wife. That said, there’s more than enough room on the island for a few dozen illegal migrants. Lots of BLM and rainbow flags to greet them.
I wonder if she got the hint?
If we are to believe them, mental health statistics show people of her political persuasion are more fragile and therefore more prone to mental health issue than the opposite, including independents. Unfortunately you learned a valuable lesson on intolerance and “trigger warnings” the hard way.
Ironically, she's a 'social worker' by trade.....ya can't write this stuff 🤣
Get shot of these friends you don’t need them they live in bubble, they better beware, the bubble is about to “Burst”
And white wine. Because nothing speaks truth to power like white wine.
Chardonnay- Hillary Clinton’s best friend
White wine and a White whiner are an excellent pairing.
Locally sourced and organic certainly.
Brilliant comment DMang.
🤣🤣that was funny
That's kind of dangerous ground to be playing on. The initial wave of #MeToo was criticizing guys like Harvey Weinstien -- who aren't *quite* as bad as the Iranian Morality Police, but certainly not worthy of any defense. I agree it's metastasized into "believe all women" which can - and is - misused by liars. But the initial #MeToo movement was nothing but a positive for humanity.
Equating Weinstein with the Iranian terrorists is just plain silly. And you clearly forget the crowd who cozied up to him when he was on top - all Democrats. All fatuous frauds.
But they never knew what Weinstein was doing. 👌
They probably figured Harvey was too fat to catch the ones that really didn't want to take his dirty deals.
And they'd be right. The others made an economic choice. Rape it was not.
Except if you were Tara Reade and accusing Biden. Somehow, it was no longer believe all women. The MeToo movement was silent on this one, because they are frauds and partisans.
Christine, you are correct + the outrage, labeling & effort to censor J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter author) JUST BECAUSE she refused to denounce being proud to be a female!
She NEVER disparaged the Trans movement. Period! But we all know that IF you voice your opinion, and it goes against the WOKE Left narrative, you are to be CANCELLED!
It was always believe all women. It was just justified with Weinstein and Epstein. It came out of believe all children. Ironic, no?
Right wing neo con "democracy and freedom spreaders" are equally hypocritical. They also talk a lot about human rights, but in the end they are only pursuing their own economical and geopolitical interests. I'm afraid the oppressed in this world can only liberate themselves and their best hope is that western hypocrites of all sorts will leave them alone instead of forcing their own agendae on them and their just fight.
That's a lesson we can all learn from history.
Or do they want to be the American mullahs? Just the ability to lie and instantly destroy any man is some evidence that they might.
Great point
What 'left wing media outlets?
I think all women should be on the streets especially in the US shouting against the Pro-lifers. But this never happens in the US.
Do you believe pro-lifers are evil?
good question...but again, no answer.
That is certainly a tell.
Masih writes of the Iranian men’s soccer team in standing silence for the national anthem — a powerful protest against their brutish government for which at least one was hanged. Fast forward to August when Megan Rapinoe and her gal pals stood in defiance against her oppressors. Pathetic, and TeamUSA got just what it deserved.
The US soccer team isn’t the same without Carli Lloyd. Besides being a prolific, yet humble scorer, she was the only US player who refused to kneel to protest “racism” ahead of the bronze medal match against Australia during the Tokyo Olympics. The same leadership qualities she displayed by standing during all previous games.
The courage she displayed in standing alone to express her love of country doesn’t get the press it deserves. Worse yet, she has been pretty much been erased for not bending the knee before the mob.
Meanwhile Rapinoe, who was never good enough to scrape the shit off Carli’s shoes, gets plaudits for trashing the very country that provided her the opportunity to become rich and famous. Hopefully that fame has been replaced by infamy for being the chump who missed the entire goal on a penalty kick and eliminated her team from the World Cup. Maybe if the goal was as big as her mouth she might have managed to at least put it on net.
Bravo, Timothy, I could not have said it better!
These WOKE Leftist who are haters of America, because “America is a refutation of their utopian fantasy of universal equality” should move to Iran +
If they think they are being marginalized here, let them report back once they live there for awhile … i.e. Brittney Griner!
Actually, Brittney Griner was very, very careful with her comments afterward. She tried hard not to sound ungrateful, but she also never actually expressed any appreciation. It's my impression that her attitude toward the U.S. hasn't actually changed.
I agree, Celia! The irony is, once these hater/anti Americans gets a taste of what it’s like in other countries, rather than come home & kiss the ground being thankful for our freedoms they take right back up where they left off.
She has been called the only WNBA player for whom a trade was actually newsworthy.
Yeah Rapinhoe never got the there-ain't-no-I-in-team memo. Instead it was constantly screaming "Look at me!!!!!".
The "WokeChoke?"
Yes I was surprised the article didn’t mention that one was hanged. So tragic. And we continue to give money to these murderers. All else aside - the Obama/Biden’s Iran policy is reason enough to vote for anyone else!
So true,but most women and men in the US don’t think much of an Megan Rapinoe.
I don't know what saying their names would do. It is terrible what is happening here and in Afganistan, but unless you are going to raise an army or fund one, this is all meaningless. I remember reading why Gandhi was so successful. Yes, he was powerful and pursuasive, but he also was dealing with the leaders of the West. If this was done with Stalin, no one would have heard about him. My point is the Mullahs and their heavily armed goons, don't care either. And until anyone has a plan to how to stop it, and that will mean revolution, and what to replace it with, this is just feel good dreaming. I admire her courage but to what end?
The problem is not to raise an army or fund one against Iran, but to stop supporting the Iranian army, secret police, weapons development, etc. that will be done with the $6 billion. Everyone including the mullahs of Iran have acknowledged that this is not going to go humanitarian aid.
The idea of humanitarian aid is also a lie. If Iran only spent the money for just food, it would provide support to the military (directly or indirectly by making more food and other resources available). Bottom line, the US is a very generous supporter of its enemies.
Iran’s Raisi himself said that they’ll spend the money however they wish. Anthony Blinken knows this - his “humanitarian use” canard is strictly for domestic consumption.
The accurate description is "aiding and abetting" not "humanitarian use". Blinken's deal provides the finances that enables Iran to have both guns and butter. It is a betrayal to those serving in the Navy's 5th fleet operating in the Persian Gulf and a further insult to all those serving in the US military.
Absolutely correct. The fact that the MSM doesn't call him out on that after Raisi's repudiation of his comments is.... (substitute "astonishing" with "unsurprising").
You mean Anthony Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod?
Yes! We have blood on our hands! This policy is vile and in my eyes Biden bears as much responsibility for it because he’s funding them.
It will take amplifying democrat kowtowing to Iran like blinked Biden and Kerry do so well. It will take protests from democrats about giving them money. It’s just not going to happen.
Ghandi himself said exactly that. "Nonviolence worked against the British, because they had a conscience."
And sadly this group in Iran does not.
Good observations Albert, particularly about Gandhi. Essentially the peace-loving man secured the support of very well-armed benefactors.
Yes, to succeed this will have to become an armed revolution.
I'm old enough to remember when a popular uprising ended the regime of the Shah. That was unfortunate in my opinion, but maybe it can happen again. There are more people than morality police.
But that uprising brough in the Morality police. What will they put in place of the morality police is my question.
Let's not forget the many, mostly black, and almost exclusively Islamist nations where slavery is STILL practiced. Nobody on the Left cares. Not on their radar.
Who is the 'left" in US Politics. You have no left. You have a 2 party centrist system with one party gone mad and not allowing abortion!
We define insanity differently. I define insanity as granting authoritarian power to infantile losers and sociopaths then arresting or at least censoring everyone who complains.
And abortion remains legal pretty much everywhere, and in many States the laws are much more lax than in most of Europe. Oregon has no rules at all, so de facto infanticide is legal.
To the point today, does the open and murderous misogyny of the Iranian theocracy botheryou, or is your hate reserved solely for the freest, most liberal system in human history?
I’ve already answered that question, haven’t I?
I would say is your hate reserved for the most helpless among us, the unborn?
What rubbish. NO problem getting an abortion here in France.
Jennifer, the author of this piece that we are reading and talking about is focused on saving women’s lives, to stop them from being tortured over their clothing, murdered for speaking an opinion. Abortion is completely irrelevant to this discussion. Why are you veering so off course?
Because Americans talking about women suffering is not so much different!
Actually, I will wonder aloud: once France falls to the Islamists, how long do you think your abortion rights will be protected? People of the sort discussed in this article are increasingly in charge of your streets.
Only people like Marine Le Pen are objecting with anything close to the appropriate vigor, and people like you call her racist and fight her at every turn.
But self evidently the people you support by default, in opposing Le Pen, oppose nearly everything else you claim to stand for, including democracy, the rights of women, freedom FROM religion, and free speech. It's a match made for idiots, by idiots.
I say give them what they want.
Eben, as the Germans say. I HAD already answered that question. But I certainly have no issue with you confirming it in the only way you could.
Well, if your whole world revolves around the right to the easy murder of a child you conceived irresponsibly, then I suppose the smallness of that world is probably the most suitable punishment for your blatantly callous hypocrisy.
And the other party gone mad and supporting Iran and genital mutilation.
NO Dear Sandy that would be the MAGATS
Jennifer, your Democratic Party is not centrist at all. The US does not have a centrist party and hasn’t for years. Terrible ideas and practices happening in Canada as well under the guise of equity. What normal person would ever want to go into politics now? The Biden government supporting Iran is inexcusable, nauseating.
I am not in the US I live in France but lived in the US for 23yrs.
From the perspective of France the Dems. ARE centrist.
There are 2 partys in the US......extreme right and centrist Dems.
That has the intellectual heft of, "I know you are but what am I?" Kindly prove it. I'll wait.
This site needs an ignore function.
In the US, abortion IS legal, depending on the State and depending on "any " health problems. Seems, up to the people and not the baby, which makes Most everyone happy. thanks.
I do not treat men like that. I have a simple rule for everyone I interact with - treat me with respect and I'll reciprocate. Treat me with disrespect and I'll initially reciprocate but if that does not work I'll remove you from my life. I too feel that Western men are under attack by some women/groups/ideologies and have been for decades. Personally I think that is why the nation is at its weakest/lowest point in my lifetime. But it is not all women/groups/idealogies and I think you give the ones that are of that bent power when you see women as a monolithic group. After all, that is what the women you are complaining about do - treat/see all men as bad, toxic . . ..
If more women would speak out against the toxic man-hating 3rd wave feminists, I would accept this point.
I can only speak for me and I do speak up. IRL I do not know women like that but maybe that is because like seeks like.
The United States government has only coddled Iran, with progressives at the head of the line to kiss the derrieres of our worst enemies—terrorists, tyrants, criminals against humanity, enemies of all that's best in the world.
The Iranian people are more pro-American than perhaps any other population in the Mideast.
And yet we do nothing but strengthen their oppressors.
Shame on our leaders!
Current so-called "Feminists" have nothing in common with Women's Rights Heroes of Yore. These "Feminists" despise women; they despise femininity, they despise everything that makes us who we are. They do not represent us - they will not even IDENTIFY us...
but Women care. Women rise up, Women defend, Women
represent what Women need. They are doing it now. Look at what they are doing in Iran, now -
The World must stop devaluing Women at the behest of "Feminists" who hate Women.
The Mullahs and their IRGC "revolutionary" guard are the preferred Islamofascists of the Western feminists like Cortez, Omar and the hollywood me toos. Bearded muscular strong manly men, marching in strict formation with firm fully loaded erect rifles...it makes the average Western feminist wet.
I agree however there are many women who are concerned for the plight of millions of women worldwide.
You are not, perhaps, but the sad truth is that the men who were in power before you for hundreds of years, were. And, this is still their legacy.
I concur, as I have also been following and reading Ayaan for years. This is not a feminist issue, nor does it have anything to do with the #metoo movement. We are discussing women who are brutalized by an entire culture that views them/us of being unworthy of having a “free” life, or sometimes no life at all. I truly believe that men are terrified of women. We must step up to the plate!
Actually we are discussing US reaction, particularly US women's reaction. As such the things which inform American women are relevant. I agree that it is not about feminism, rather about a humanitarian crisis. To me trying to couch it as "feminism" or more accurately what some American women have contorted that to mean, does the issue a serious disservice. American feminists support Biden and he is funding the regime directly responsible for the egregious mistreatment.
I would say, rather than feminism, supporting the need for women's freedom in much of the Islamic world is humanism. These women are considered less than human, possessions much like a donkey or truck, and worth less than either.
True but that is what American feminism started out about. What it has become is mind-boggling.
Infidel should be required reading.
But was it written before 2008?
🤣
Masih, I have been following you since you started writing. You are an awesome inspiration for women all over the world and I applaud your efforts and dedication to bringing Iran’s complete lack of freedom and equality to the forefront of the news. It must be incredibly difficult for you to live a life in hiding just because you are a woman. I’m in your corner.
It isn't as if the Iranian demonic theocracy only oppresses women. Islamic fundamentalism is anti-human.
Slight, but important, correction. Biden announced the $6 billion ransom on September 11.
I’ll never forget the reaction a senior partner in my architecture firm had when the sale of Rockefeller Center to a Japanese investor group in the ‘80’s was finalized on Dec. 7th.
He was a naval aviator in WW II and he looked like he was ready to hop in his fighter and do a kamikaze mission into the imperial palace in Tokyo. We see history through our screens, not in our guts (of course, I’m writing this in my bathrobe with a cup of coffee listening to “Rhapsody in Blue”, but…)
Much in the way that we all know that Biden’s a teleprompter reader and not a charismatic leader, reporters and anchors are just doing the bidding of corporate sponsors and ad salesmen - uh - salespeople.
Until we get back to truly digging in and doing the work necessary to be true to ourselves and then to our communities and the world, we’ll just be internet proles (Oooh - that just popped into my head - good one, Tim!).
I agree. One of the stunning things to me about this article was the reference to fearless Iranian journalists to which I thought "If only we had a few of those here". But instead yesterday's TGIF lauded a journalist for finally reading allegedly objectionable books years after the allegation (which he had previously dismissed as right-wing).
Purely disgusting. Biden kowtows to the Iranian government and I’d like to know why?
Biden has no moral core - he accepted bribes, he’s a plagiarist, he constantly fabricates where he’s been and what he’s done - yet 81 million Americans supposedly voted for him. It doesn’t say much for the American public. I am sure these 81 million people are okay with unfreezing Iranian assets.
I bet it’s green and sits in a Biden shell company vault somewhere..
I’ve been begging TFP to do a deep dive on this issue. It’s much more nefarious than Blundering Biden and his corrupt cronies. It dates back to Obama’s “Realignment” policy of strengthening Iran to weaken Israel. They don’t like the Israel-USA alliance that empowers Israel. in their eyes Israel is colonial/imperialist/racist etc and must be put in its place; shifting middle eastern power to Iran and away from the US will “put Israel in its place” or if Iran has its way, simply eliminate it, as they’re fond of chanting.
Michael Doran has written extensively about this and he’s been interviewed in many podcasts (you can Google his name but here’s a piece he wrote for Tablet laying it out: https://www.tabletmag.com/contributors/michael-doran). I wish I could scream from the rooftops that there is a much bigger plan in place here that focuses its ire on Israel. Once you see that it all makes sense.
Shirley, I totally agree with you. I am a reader of the incredible Tablet and of Michael Doran.
I really wish more people paid attention. I couldn’t understand why the US was pursuing this policy so aggressively until I read about Realignment and now it makes perfect sense.
Reportedly, to free 2 Americans in prison in Iran. What is K\orea's excuse?
If a culture’s imperative is to murder women for not wearing head scarves, who are we to say it’s wrong? I thought it was off limits to criticize “cultures” different from our own. When did common human decency become a yardstick for acceptable behavior?
The hypocrisy of the left on full display. Well done, Mr. Horton.
When I was a student at the University of Missouri j-school in the 1980s, a fellow student said just this when I noted my horror at Iran and Iraq sending children into fields to detonate mines. This woman became a reporter.
You make it sound like it’s ok to use children for this purpose.... we live in a terrible terrible world and we spend our energy naval gazing at our own (admittedly horrible) past instead of looking at what is happening today, everyday, across the world to children
FWIW - that storyline about children going in to detonate mines is inaccurate because it removes the "Why?"
Children are less likely to trigger mines because they are lighter weight. The new revolutionary government faced a terrible enemy in Saddam. Those kids were heroes to their nations. War is a calculation of efficiency.
In that war, the USA backed Iraq which had more tanks and used chemical weapons and land mines. Having just executed the army's officers Iran had poor military.
The children were quite effective, which is why they continued to be used.
Thank you for the insights, Spartacus. You’re right if referring to an anti-tank mine, which needs about 350 pounds to detonate. Anti-personnel mines require 35 pounds, about the weight of a toddler. Saddam was horrible. I get it, and shame on us in picking sides in that dispute. But just as horrible was Khomeini for using innocents to do something so barbaric. Oh wait, we’re now (as we were in 1983) in the age of cultural relevance. How chauvinistic of me to have been horrified.
Don’t take my word for it. Take it to German historian Matthias Kuntzell who reported in the New Republic in 2006:
“In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. “Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”
Horrifying!!!!!!!
"According to the White House, there have been 31 credible threats against my life on U.S. soil over the past year alone." - This sentence is one of the most jarring of the entire article. The fact that America has become so weak and docile to allow another nation-state to reach across our borders and threaten the life of someone we have given sanctuary to is beyond comprehension. 31 times? This is what happens when you socialize with a bully, when you cater and kowtow to someone who continually threatens your way of life.
Agee. This is also what happens when “reaching across our borders” is a simple unchallenged entry.
Can you imagine what our current US administration would unleash against the author if she had recommended setting fire to the vehicles of US federal agencies, as she suggested doing to the vehicles of Iran’s “morality police”? Is the difference between Iran and the US one of kind or degree? Is there anyone left in America who cannot perceive our own relentless drift towards authoritarianism?
And there it is. All true.
Revolution or evolution?
And what deal(s) will get made if revolution is to succeed?
I am old enough to remember Shia radicals marching in San Francisco to overthrow the Shah. Harj-o-marj is coming again. But without a fanatical ideology, it's harder to get people to fight.
I also remember the New York press deciding that the islamists in Egypt were the "good guys" and inventing the Arab Spring. It was inventive garbage, entirely divorced from reality.
Now we have this woman. I sympathize. And I am bound up with bigger fish to fry. I am also concerned far more about the health and welfare of the USA. We used to be a better nation.
We used to have excellent, sane public education and paid teachers well . Anyone willing to do the work could attend college and get done with little or no debt. We were a leader in health care.
We built infrastructure second to none. But now we are in a dive to 3rd world status. Our infrastructure is a joke compared to China or Japan. Our health care is the worst in the OECD.. we are the only developed nation that routinely bankrupts our senior citizens.
Remember this? The naive fools that invented the Arab Spring found out what it was really about. And yet, they still support Islamists as if Islam was progressive. More insane bedfellows are hard to imagine.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8216027/Former-CBS-News-reporter-Lara-Logan-recounts-Cairo-gang-rape-slams-coverage-assault.html
Remember Anderson Cooper fawning over the Arab Spring? As if people who had fun throwing gay people off the roof until dead supported himand whathe believed in?
I'm not sure when we last had "excellent, sane public education". Going back 40 years, "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was released in 1983 by the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. From Wikipedia: "Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing". And: "As implied by the title of the report, the commission's charter responds to Terrel Bell's observation that the United States' educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce".
It was pretty good pre-1979, which was when the US Department of Education was created.
I don't think that creation of the US Department of Education improved the situation, but I do believe that the start of the decline preceded it. From Wikipedia - "A Nation at Risk":
"The report said that average SAT scores dropped 'over 50 points' in the verbal section and 'nearly 40 points' in the mathematics section, during the period 1963-1980."
I attended K-12 public schools in Chicago mostly during the 1950's. In 1987, U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett claimed that Chicago had the worst school district in the nation. But the elementary and high schools I went to were not bad, despite suffering from the excessive bureaucracy and rigidity that public school systems find it hard to avoid. There was a fairly rigorous curriculum and some pretty good teachers (and some not so good ones). Perhaps the problems in Chicago stem at least in part from the start of the collective bargaining era. From Wikipedia - "Chicago Teachers Union": "The CTU won collective bargaining rights in 1966".
If you haven't read it, I recommend the late John Taylor Gatto's 2008 book "Weapons of Mass Instruction - A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling". It's a scathing, humorous, and slightly loony critique of U.S. public schools.
Thanks for the rec. I will check it out. But I still think creation of the DoEd sealed the deal. If there is anything that should be locally governed it is schools. ( Frankly I think everything but borders and the standing army, plus whatever states collectively cede governance of ( air travel, interstate highways, etc.) should be local.
Depends why. If she’s mostly peaceful in burning federal buildings it’s quite all right. If it’s January 6 she better run like hell.
Yes I find this sentence particularly horrifying.
She mentioned 'safe houses' which means the threats are still ongoing.
This is no secret. They chased salmon Rushdie for decades before finally finding him at a book talk and attempting to kill him. He lost his eye but lived and continues to fight. Ironically, it happened in a progressive reading circle where they didn’t want to force people to walk through metal detectors because the optics are bad. So one got in. A Fatwah is very real and they will never stop trying to kill her.
I can’t imagine that social media has helped in her protection when one allows evil a platform.
And this administration just released $6B in frozen assets for humanitarian purposes; what an atrocity!
I don't know if withholding money from organizations in Iran is a positive or negative thing. The author here makes a case for it being a positive thing; that the US should be trying economic pressure to encourage Iran to change its practices. The geopolitical counter-argument would be that this would drive Iran into the arms of BRICS, who won't interfere at all with human rights abuses. America needs to acknowledge it doesn't have the economic power that it had 10-15 years ago.
Or, they could do what Trump did and knock off the terror captains.
Like China, there are no non-government controlled entities on Iran. So if the money is going to Iran the Ayatollah will determine its use
Iran has already aligned with BRICS.
Please put “humanitarian” in quotes. Everyone knows that’s not what the money is for.
And a fraud. On many levels.
it was in exchange for American prisoners.
Strange, but I just don't see or hear much in the way of support coming from either
US congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib on how women are being treated so horrifically in Iran (and elsewhere in the Middle East). I wonder why that is...
Because it doesn't touch them, or elevate them publicly, they don't care.
No. Ilhan Omar and Rachel Talib are, by their religion, bound to support the Iranian religious dictatorship. Religious dictatorship is required by orthodox Islam.
They wear hijab! They are not friends to this woman! She is their sworn enemy. Always and forever. With the caveat that Shia and Sunni Muslims are mutual heretics to each other. The Sunni schism killed every favorite and descendant of Mohammed. Shia are loyal to Ali and governed by a council. Sunni claim the Khalifa title---one man rule: pope, commander in chief, legislator in chief, and chief justice.
So beyond my ability to comprehend or comply. Good thing I was born Protestant.
Hahahahahaha we’ll be waiting a very long time for that .... they’re here to do Sharia’s bidding. They don’t give two f***s about women.
I suspect because they do as told.
Because they know the Western narrative is bullsh!t.
“You simply can’t make deals with terrorists.”
Obama/Biden pushing the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal), despite Israel who is in the bulls eye of Iran’s terror campaign saying that it would only delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions while enriching them and allowing them to continue their hegemony of the region.
Trump had it right. Aggressive direct sanctions and indirect sanctions against any country that trades with Iran. Keep the boot on their neck until this horrific regime is ended.
Obama is friends with Iran, period. EVERYTHING he did showed it. Biden is doing the same because Obama is running the show from the shadows.
Pallets of cash for the very regime that was killing American soldiers in Iraq. Trump, in contrast, took out Soleimani, the head Iranian terrorist. Obama was a fraud of the worst order. And now he's living in coastal splendor with his own personal (now dead) chef. Funny how that works.
yup
Obama did it for Valery Jarrett his advisor- I think she has family there, otherwise she flogs her black cred.
Obama is the first ex president to remain in D.C. after his term. It has been reported that he has regular meetings with high level Biden officials. I don’t know for sure who’s running the country, but it’s clearly not just “the big guy”.
Yes I've heard this many times.
Strength matters. Kumbaya diplomacy will not.
Please understand. It’s not in spite of Israel being in the cross hairs. It’s BECAUSE Israel is in the cross hairs. Israel is they enemy in their eyes so they must empower Iran. It’s very simple.
This is about countering Russian influence. Russia has made a sort of ally of Iran. (Warily.) Iran's drones were provided to Russia.
There is more to this deal behind the scenes than on the surface.
This writer is a motivator, not a strategist.
Why hasn't your cause caught on with the Progs here and in Europe?...the feminists, fake progressive Muslims, the socialists, campus political class, etc.
Exactly right
Moral relativism abounds among the progressives. They don’t feel they can criticize Iran because America is more broken in their eyes. Their moral compasses aren’t just broken, they point only to us.
Masih, if we had a real president - instead of the corrupt, totalitarian, senile thug who sullies our Oval Office - you wouldn't have to fear for your life in America or watch as the Biden cabal sucks up to terrorists. In both Iran and America, we are in the grip of totalitarian zealots who believe in religions of backwardness, hate and intolerance (even though the American version is secular and hates God, too). Just as brave Iranians take to the streets and defy tyranny, Americans will soon do so. And when freedom once again rings in Washington and Tehran, Americans and Iranians can once again be united in liberty.
Great piece Masih, blessings on your work
Thanks to The Free Press for highlighting this heroic woman. God bless her and all those fighting theocratic oppression.
With the award of $6 billion to the murderous regime in Iran, the gutting of Title IX, and the erasure of women’s sports, one wonders how any woman can support and vote for the Biden misogynists.
What you said!!
100% agree wrt Biden's goals for Title IX, but on the issue of Iran, there's a lot of nuance missing from Alinejad's narrative: https://beeley.substack.com/p/the-wests-weaponisation-of-womens?publication_id=716517&post_id=79134073&isFreemail=true
This is vague - could you give one or two concrete examples / facts?
That we are supporting the Iranian regime is beyond. The shamelessness of our government in all of its affairs, in all of the depredations we allow it to inflict on us and the world beggars description.
Masih, you are a brave woman and a true journalist. You stand up and report the truth, at your own personal risk. Your piece reminded me that we have so few real journalists left in the US, most are just mouth pieces for the Democratic party, and are no better than parrots in a cage.
When the White House sent MSM the memo on how to deal with Republicans and impeachment, I thought why in the world would they need a memo. These hacks have been doing the D's bidding for years.
Marcia, you are so right!
Because some seem to be waking from their "the Dem party is the best and must be protected at all costs" trance.
And what they write is fit only to line said cage.
Be careful; not all is what it seems: "Masih Alinejad is...a significant part of the U.S. influence-peddling machine that has been pursuing regime change in Iran for decades. Her employer, Voice of America Persia, is part of an international network of propaganda-producing organizations originally created by the CIA."
https://beeley.substack.com/p/the-wests-weaponisation-of-womens?publication_id=716517&post_id=79134073&isFreemail=true
This is vague - could you give one or two concrete examples / facts?
"... deeply delusional...."
The current U.S. administration's take on Iran... and most everything else.
Unfortunately, this administration is apparently hell bent on SUPPORTING the Iranian regime at any cost, even at the cost of women’s freedom. I don’t know what I can do personally but thank you for the article as I didn’t know any of this except for what happened to Mahsa Amini.