Courageous

We are dazzled by the bravery of the Ukrainian people resisting Russian invasion. We should be awed by the extreme courage of Iranian women now resisting the tyranny of a medieval regime holding a country hostage through wanton brutality.

Protests broke out in Iran after the death on Sept. 16 of Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini in the hands of theocracy’s “morality police.” She was arrested for wearing her hijab improperly. The dreaded “morality police,” a militia under the control of the mullahs rather than the state, routinely beat up citizens arrested for violating religious regulations. Since Amini’s death, protests have been sustained across all Iranian cities and most universities.

The regime vowed a decisive response against these protests. They have delivered as promised: using live fire against protesting doctors, grabbing protesting women and subjecting them to torture, shooting down motorists seen blaring their car horns in support of the protestors.

Human rights monitors estimate over 400 peacefully protesting Iranians were killed by the regime’s brutal response over the past few weeks since Amini’s death. Among those killed was Nika Shahkarami, a brave teenager nabbed by the “morality police” for demonstrating in the streets.

Protests against the harsh Islamist rule of the mullahs have broken out from time to time over the years. All of them were brutally crushed by regime forces. Street demonstrations are often confronted by the crowd control units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), another paramilitary formation answerable to the mullahs rather than the state. They are not governed by any rules of engagement in their mission of repression, building a reputation for extreme brutality.

Given the regime’s propensity for unmitigated violence against its own people, many expected the initial rounds of protests to eventually die down. But over 40 days since Mahsa’s killing, the protests are getting bigger and more determined.

Unlike previous outbreaks of protests, this latest round is led by women. This is an important feature. Women are doubly oppressed in mullah-run Iran – first for their gender and second for being Iranians. Mahsa Amini, being of the Kurdish ethnic minority, was oppressed thrice over. She was prohibited from using her Kurdish name.

This latest round of protests is aimed the very core of the repressive social order the mullahs are trying to impose on the Iranian people. Those participating in the protests, at great risk to their lives, are rejecting the very core of the regime’s claim to legitimacy. The irresolvable conflict between religious extremism and modernity has come to a head.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Tehran as part of the parliamentary team headed by then Speaker Jose de Venecia. As adviser to the Speaker, I managed to join a private audience with then hardline Iranian president Ahmadinejad – even breaking protocol to get him to sign the small pamphlet he had written and proudly distributed to us. That was my small act of disorder.

In those few days in Tehran, it was evident the Iranian people were sick and tired of clerical rule and the social conventions imposed on a suppressed people. It was the same impression I developed when I visited Moscow and other cities as a consultant to the United Nations University in the dying days of the Soviet Union. Ordinary people broke the prescribed conventions at every opportunity in small but sustained acts of defiance. Consciously but at every opportunity, ordinary citizens indulged in minor acts of rebellion.

One could not help but feel the regime has lost all legitimacy and dramatic change happening was only a matter of time. The Islamist rulers in Tehran probably realize they have hit the horizon of their rule, the historical limits of their odd and unsustainable regime. They might still control how people dress in public, but they can never recapture their minds. Freedom drives history.

We can only join in spirit the brave women of Iran waging this epic struggle against tyranny. The odds against them are immense. The regime they battle is cruel and callous. But their courage is overpowering.

It is not accidental that Tehran and Moscow are closely allied in this vital juncture. Both regimes are swimming against the tide of history. Both tyrannies have been denounced by most civilized societies in the world today. Both need to apply the most brutal tactics of repression in order to persist.

It is also not accidental that both Moscow and Tehran are inflicting the most horrendous crimes against humanity. They are regimes that do not thrive observing the most basic rules of humanity. They both hope to survive by exercising gross repression.

Isolated and rejected globally, the tyrannies holding power in Moscow and Tehran need each other. They are both in the business of terrorizing whole populations. In due time, the tyrants will be made to account for the crimes they commit today.

Moscow, Tehran, Beijing and Pyongyang constitute an effective axis of tyrannies. The unaccountable regimes in these capitals are the collective source of fundamental threats to global peace.

Add to that axis the military junta ruling Myanmar with an iron glove. A few days ago, the air forces of Myanmar bombarded a crowd attending a concert. The concert was held in an ethnically distinct region with a history of resistance to the rulers in Yangon. The attack can only be described as a massacre.

The ASEAN has been criticized for its silence on the brutality of the military rulers of Myanmar. That criticism is well deserved.