i think the world doesnât know what it really means to live in a theocratic dictatorship. Let me tell you about our experiences living in the islamic regime of iran.
1. Your parents were born to muslim parents so theyâre automatically muslim. Youâre automatically a muslim too. You didnât choose your religion and you canât opt out of it or you will be executed.
2. The compulsory hijab law makes you a criminal if you choose not to wear hijab even tho you didnât choose to be a muslim and you donât consider yourself a muslim but the regime has forced you into that role whether you like it or not. And when you âbreak that lawâ, they can do with you as they please.
3. little girls as young as 7 yrs old are forced to wear hijab at school even tho the islam itself says the age is 9. and all the schools are gender segregated so imagine how they force you to get used to hijab even when youâre just surrounded by other girls. And all day long at school they tell you horrible stories about what will happen to you in hell if someone sees even a strand of your hair.
4. the regime modifies all the textbooks, story books, cartoons and movies to represent the ideal woman with full on hijab. The iranian media is ordered to photoshop every photo of a woman that may be showing a little skin. And if theyâre iranian, no hair is supposed to be seen or that will be photoshopped away. Women are mostly excluded from billboards and tv commercials.
5. imagine going to work or meeting up with a friend when suddenly the morality police kidnap you in broad daylight and force you into a van to take you to a station where they will treat you like a criminal and if you donât agree to get humiliated and do as they say, they will put you in prison. And in case of Mahsa Amini and so many more before her, they will beat you to death. My sister was barely 18 when she got kidnapped and they didnât let her call home and sheâd been so fucking scared and we had no idea where she was. Imagine all the psychological trauma.
6. If youâre in a car and not wearing hijab they will fine you and seize your car. So when u get into a taxi the driver will ask you to keep your hijab on otherwise theyâll get fined. And if you refuse theyâll ask you to get off the car.
7. And its not just about hijab. In Ramadan, they get even more vicious. If they catch you eating or even drinking water on the street they will give you lashes as punishment and even imprison you for breaking the law. If you work in a state-owned company itâs even worse. They will close the cafeteria and take away the water dispensers. All restaurants are banned from delivering food before iftar. Itâs a fucking mess. Everyone has to pretend theyâre fasting or theyâll be severely punished.
8. And how could I forget about this! iranian women are banned from singing! the islamic regime prohibits womenâs singing voices to be heard by men so imagine the horror of having 50% of the population banned from ever becoming a singer. If they identify a female singer in iran, they will take her to jail and force her to repent her sins in the most humiliating way so that she will never dare sing again.
9. And every time the regime gets wind of a private gathering of men and women trying to have fun and live their fucking private lives, the police crash the party and take everyone to jail bc the Islamic regime bans iranian men and women from having fun.
10. Did you know that the islamic regime doesnât allow womenâs faces to be printed on their obituaries or headstones? They put a flower for our faces instead and if they see a headstone with a womanâs face printed on it theyâll smash it to pieces. Thatâs how religious dictatorship continues to oppress and erase women even after their deaths.
11. For some reason, women arenât allowed to ride motorcycles and the government wonât issue any license for them. In some cities, women are barred from riding a bicycle.
So if you see Islam has become for many iranians a symbol of oppression and torture and discrimination, thatâs why. The regime uses islam as a weapon to silence and punish anyone who opposes them. You can love islam all you want from the safety of your home in a free country and talk about how kind and benevolent the religion is, but in iran, itâs a whole different story.
Our economy is fucked. All govt officials are corrupt as fuck. Most websites are banned in iran. Even tumblr is banned. The world has cut the iranian ppl from many services. We donât have intl credit cards like visa card. Amazon doesnât do delivery to iran. We cant get netflix, spotify or even a gamepass subscription. we donât get any Apple services here. iran isnât listed as a country you could choose when signing up for a lot of services. and when we decide to leave iran and escape this hellhole, every country out there will make it sooo much harder for us to get a visa just bc we had the misfortune to be born in iran at the wrong time.
This is the story of iran for the past 44 years. Held hostage by a corrupt regime that uses religion to suppress and torture the people and being abandoned by the rest of the world bc our lives donât matter.
Please be our voice. Once they shut down the internet completely and silence our voice, they will start slaughtering us to stifle the protests just like they did in 2019. Please help us. We want this fucking regime gone.
