Iran's Courageous Women Fight On (letter to the editor)

WSJ ^

[nuconvert]

Iran's Courageous Women Fight On In regard to your Dec. 22 editorial "The Peoples' Revolt in Iran": It has been highly disturbing over the past six months to see so many women demonstrating in the streets of Iran. Of course, all of the demonstrators are not women—many men were also on the streets. It's just that I never remember seeing so many women take the lead in demonstrations, especially at the risk of their lives.

Meanwhile, the silence from the free world has been deafening. President Barack Obama, instead of embracing the protesters, has stood by hoping that the Iranian government will unclench its fist and reach for the olive branch.

But no. First, the regime has stiffened its back even more than during the Bush administration, and, second, we've lost the chance to renew our friendship with the Iranian people, who undoubtedly think we turned our backs on them.

Now, if by some chance the people do overthrow the regime, the new government might hate us just as much.

What the pro-democracy demonstrators need is strong encouragement and support.

[dog breath]

People are at their core the same whether they are raised Muslim or another religion. They have the need for hope for the future, hope for their children, and some improvement in a bleak situation. To struggle against despair people will do amazing things. I think sometimes that women by their nature as caregivers, especially women who have been marginalized and cut off from all avenues of progress, are more aware of this need. Urban Iranian women were at one time some of the most educated and modern in the region, they know what is lost to them. There is that old poem, Sympathy, by Paul Lawrence Dunbar about how he knows why the caged bird beats it’s wings till it’s blood is red on those cruel bars, that explains it better then I ever could.

[Ev Reeman]

The only way women will ever get any rights in Arab countries is to fight for their freedom alongside any other freedom fighters in their various countries even if they are male. Freedom and liberty are not exclusive to any one sex or gender. Any people in any oppressed or totalitarian country must fight for their freedom and do so unceasingly, tirelessly and ambitiously. Such fighting is not without setbacks or sacrifices but the end goal is well worth the fight.