In her weekly article, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, discusses the broader impact of the protests in Iran and the looming agenda on gender equality.
Gülseren Onanç
Weeks have passed since Mahsa Amini (her real name was Jina Amini) was detained and killed by the morality police for not covering her hair sufficiently. The protests are still continuing in Iran. The struggle of women to be visible and free is shaking the Islamic regime. The regime’s police have killed 80 people so far, but women do not give up on street protests and face the cost of dying. Civil disobedience acts are spreading from Iran to the world. The demonstrators are not only resisting against the imposition of headscarf, but also against the oppressive regime imposed on society by political Islam. They are fighting for the freedom of 85 million Iranians.
Elnaz Sarbar, an Iranian women’s rights activist who immigrated to the United States years ago, said: “My friend in Iran says there is a new self-confidence and pride in women. They are everywhere without headscarves on the streets, they are burning their headscarves. I know that Amini, which means to give life in Kurdish, is a Phoenix, and from her ashes Iranian woman will rise.”
The resistance of Iranian women strengthens, heals, brings us all closer
There has been a call from solidarity from Turkey. T24 writer Pınar Doğu said, “The widespread support of the protests in Iran is a lifeline not only for women there, but also all women who struggle for existence and visibility around the world, who are exposed to oppression and exploitation, and who are trying to get rid of the domination over their souls and bodies. It strengthens, heals, brings us all closer.”
Singer Melek Mosso cut her hair on stage for Iranian women and sang a song with Iranian artist Aras Idol. Melek Mosso said, “I am with my sisters in Iran, I am speaking for them. No one will be able to take away our women, our life, our freedom, our freedom.”
Will the resistance rising from Iran turn into a women’s revolution in the world?
The question of whether the wave of women’s resistance rising from Iran can turn into a women’s revolution is on our agenda. What kind of a revolution should it be, against the strong patriarchal order, rooted in cultures, against political Islam? What should organized women do to be successful in the struggle for equality in their country?
The quickest answer I can think of to these questions is; equal representation of women in politics and decision-making. For years, women’s movements have been advocating for equal representation of women in country administrations.
According to the latest report of the United Nations Women’s Unit (UN Women), if this rate continues, 130 years are needed to ensure gender equality in country administrations. The representation of women in parliaments, which was 11% in the world in 1995, has increased to 27% as of September 19, 2022.
A woman’s seizure of power is not a win for all women and feminism
Only 13 heads of state and 15 heads of government are women.
That number rose to sixteen after Georgia Meloni was elected the first female prime minister in Italy last week. But unfortunately, Georgia Meloni is a politician far from the peaceful, inclusive approach to politics that we think female leaders will bring to their country and the world. Meloni is perceived as a threat to women’s rights.
Defining herself as “woman, mother, Italian, Christian” at a rally in Rome in 2019, Meloni has a traditional far-right perspective. “Being a woman doesn’t automatically mean being a feminist,” Italian journalist Giulia Siviero told openDemocracy. I find it very sexist to argue that any woman’s seizure of power is a win for all women and feminism. This approach puts a person’s gender before their beliefs or policies,” she says.
According to Siviero, Meloni represents the perfect male model as she does not question the existing system. She’s using her own gender purely for her anti-feminist policies. Defining herself as “pro-family”, Meloni and her party collaborate with anti-abortion and anti-LGBTIQ+ movements. One of the main themes of her campaign was to increase Italy’s low birth rate by encouraging women to have children, while at the same time eliminating the danger of “ethnic substitution” of immigrants. The far right turns issues such as family, religion and borders into issues of identity.
Feminist organization is needed to realize the women’s revolution
We can say by looking at Italy’s far-right prime minister that we cannot achieve the women’s revolution by bringing more women to power. We need brave women and their feminist organizations, like Iranian women, to question the dominant system and put their lives on the line for this cause, demanding equality.
The first of the women’s forums organised by the Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK) in Turkey aims to raise the women’s movement demands ahead of the 2023 elections. EŞİK had previously listed its five general demands in light of the coming elections:
• Stop eroding our equal citizenship rights.
• Stop the rhetoric and initiatives that threaten our rights.
• Implement an emergency action plan for our right to live a non-violent life at home, at work, on the street and in all social life.
• Make education egalitarian, non-discriminatory, scientific, secular and free.
• Implement effective policies for equal employment.
In order to bring the women’s revolution to life in our country and in the world, we need feminist women politicians who will be the voice of feminism that advocates equality, democracy and pluralism.
We must support the representatives of feminist organizations in the 2023 elections.