A protest that erupted after Mahsa Amini’s death on Sept. 23, 2022, at the Embassy of Iran in Brussels, Belgium (Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com).

 

Last September, Mahsa Amini died while she was in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

She was Kurdish. While visiting Iran’s capital Tehran, she was arrested on the streets for improperly wearing a hijab (head covering).

The authorities claimed that she died from an underlying disease, but an anti-government reporter who happened to be at the hospital leaked a photo of Ms. Amini (Image 1). The photos of the CT scans that the journalist took showed no signs of an underlying disease, but instead showed that she was tortured to death. Unfortunately, this journalist has now gone missing.

Ms. Amini’s photos went viral on the internet.

The citizens of Iran protested: “Death to the Dictator!” “Victory is near. This year is THE year!”

The protests spread like wildfire to 80 cities nationwide.

The Basij, a paramilitary volunteer militia under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (*), oppressed the unarmed citizens.

“Take one step outside your house and we’ll shoot you down! We’ll rape the women!” They shouted, ruthlessly shooting the young protesters with live ammunition.

According to a source, Basij is a 90,000-man militia that oversees the oppression of the people. They are an organized gang hired by the government; the more brutal the soldiers are, the higher up they become. There are no requirements for joining, so it is rumored that there are Chinese men among the soldiers.

The militia have killed more than 600 people and 20,000 people have been arrested.

 

Protest Revolves Around Women For First Time

“Woman, Life, Freedom.” This is the slogan that has united Iranians after Ms. Amini’s death.

Sadly, many of the movement’s leaders are imprisoned. Fatemeh Sepehri, a women’s rights activist, is among these people. She criticized Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for staying silent in the aftermath of Ms. Amini’s death and called for his resignation. This “crime” has cost her 18 years in prison.

In Iran, the supreme leader makes the final decision on various topics and it is taboo to criticize him. It is not surprising then that those who criticize Khamenei are regarded as political criminals and are tortured if they are detained.

 

Why Women Have Few Rights in Iran

Dissatisfaction has been building among Iran’s citizens for a while. The rapid spread of the protests was a result of this. One of the causes of the dissatisfaction is the prevalence of “honor killings”: a murder that is allowed under Islamic law if it restores a family’s honor. According to a Middle Eastern expert, honor killings are commonly performed by husbands and fathers in Iran.

Recently in 2022, this was brought to peoples’ attention when a woman who had been abused by her husband fled to Turkey and then had her head severed when she returned.

For a wife to obtain a passport in Iran, the husband must give his written approval. In this case the wife asked her husband for “approval,” but the husband did not realize what he signed. After his wife returned to the country, the husband was furious. Leaving no time for an explanation, he beheaded his wife.
 

A video of the man smirking while he held his wife’s severed head went viral on social media. He shouted, “I can’t let her do whatever she wants!” (Image 2).

The husband pleaded innocent claiming that it was an honor killing. In the end, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The woman who criticized the supreme leader was sentenced to 18 years in prison, while the man who decapacitated someone was sentenced to seven. The problem becomes apparent with this comparison.

In a democratic nation, criticizing a public figure should be protected as “freedom of expression” in the constitution. This proves the nation’s shift towards being a totalitarian state. Meanwhile, the beheading trial was a symbolic case that revealed how women are treated as second-class citizens, and how Islamic law itself violates human rights.

 

Citizens’ Anger Has Reached Its Peak

After theocracy was established in Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran became a democracy and held elections. Reformist presidents such as Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani have been elected to office since that time. However, the extremely conservative Raisi administration begun in 2021 and reformists and moderate conservatives were disqualified by the Guardian Council prior to the election date. The election became a farce.

Voting allows citizens’ voices to be reflected in the government. It also allows for the peaceful change of administrations. When the Iranian government ignored these basic principles of democracy, the citizens were left with no choice but to protest in the streets.

The dissatisfaction of Iran’s citizens has reached its peak. Even though they seem to be oppressed, protests can break out at any point. The majority of citizens, especially the younger people, believe that they have reached a point of no turning back.

Hamid Gharagozloo, a human rights activist who fled from Iran to the U.S., said, “90 percent of the population are against the current political system, and more than half of those in the Revolutionary Corps and the police force are ready to side with the citizens in a revolt.”

The citizens have already made a firm resolution. Now, they endure, waiting for the opportune moment to revolt.

To a theocratic nation like Iran, modernization means conducting religious reforms and outlawing Islamic laws that permit honor killings.

Happy Science founder and CEO Ryuho Okawa stated the following in his lectures, encouraging the nation to reconsider its human rights violations:

“Modernization can happen without losing in war, so I think [Iran] should modernize on their own accord in the realms where they are violating human rights or are behind. I think this would make for a nation that is less misunderstood by others”

In the West, Christianity’s religious reformations created new concepts of rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of speech. These have become common ground in today’s society. Similarly, in Iran an internal reformation is first required for true modernization to be achieved.

 

China Will Take Over If Revolution Leads to Materialism

Iran must note that modernization does not equal secularization.

The Iranian who fled to the U.S. revealed his honest feelings about this.

“60 percent of the Iranian citizens want to democratize, yet they are against the creation of an atheistic nation.”

Hamid also revealed Iran’s dark side.

“Those who oppose the will of the government or the supreme leader are severely oppressed and killed. Communism is behind these acts. That’s why China holds the power in Iran.”

If materialistic reformations proceed, Iran may shift towards becoming China’s “tributary nation” in a similar way to Myanmar.

Iran has remained silent about the Uyghur genocide, even though they are the ones who should take the initiative to protect their comrades. Is Allah not a benevolent God, who deeply loves all people equally?

The Islamic wall is like the Berlin Wall—across the wall, there are people who are seeking freedom.

During the Cold War, the West supported the Polish anti-governmental Trade Union “Solidarity,” creating an opportunity for the collapse the Soviet Union. The solidarity was not merely constituted by laborers; its core members consisted of deeply faithful people who prayed to God every day.

What is a human? What kind of life should a person lead? Where would that certain kind of life take someone after they die? A soul can never be at rest without learning this. However, when a person discovers the Truth, their freedom leaps towards God for the first time. There are definitely people who yearn for the Truth on the other side of the wall as well (see column).

The primordial God El Cantare who guided Muhammad has already revealed the Truth to humanity. He has taught us that all human beings, including women, carry the light of God within them in their souls. The Buddha essence that is given equally to all human beings forms the basis of human dignity. When the core of the revolution becomes centered on this Truth, Iran will escape the influence of the atheistic, materialistic China and be able to truly modernize.

(*) An obedient military organization directly connected to Iran’s supreme leader.

 

A protest at Washington Square Park in New York on Oct. 15, 2022 (Ryan Rahman / Shutterstock.com).

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Column

 

How a Woman Who Was Abused by Her Husband And Considered Suicide Was Saved

By a Middle Eastern expert
In Iran, the reality is that women are inferior beings who are treated as objects by men.

There was a woman I met who was sexually abused by her drug-abusing brother from the age of 13 to the age of 20.

She wanted to escape her hellish life, so she married a man who proposed to her when she was 20. However, she continued to be abused by her new husband and began to consider suicide.

She contacted me saying she wanted to die, so I responded, “You must not think that you will become free after you commit suicide.” “That means you are throwing away God’s mercy and betraying his love.” She gradually realized that her sufferings until now were part of her life’s “workbook of problems.”

She then told me, “I want to embrace my years of suffering.”

The story does not end here. After seeing his wife pray, the husband was struck by the beauty of her piety, and realized that there was a devil within him, so he stopped abusing his wife. The two now live their lives filled with gratitude.