Criminy. I grew up in Iran. A "radical feminist" since the age of 3, as an adolescent my tolerance of being touched by men in the streets of Tehran was zero. I will say that I thought they were molesting women, especially Western or Westernized Iranian women, because of the economic politics of the CIA and US government. Western countries contracted for the entirety of specific mono-crops from the Shah causing untold misery to a huge number of people. For one thing, we regularly had specific food shortages because the Shah would have monocrops raised, all or most of it sold outside the country, so that for a time you couldn't find onions or meat or rice or whatever it is they were selling to Western markets. The other issue was that farms had been part of a landlord system where villages attached to the farm had a symbiotic relationship with the landowning family they worked for. This disappeared when the Shah (and his father) took over these farms by force/intimidation. The government did not take care of the villages the way the landowning families had, and the men in these villages were unemployed and drifted to the cities where they were also unemployed, standing hopelessly on the streets watching middle-and upper-class women sashaying by in what culturally was a state of undress. I still dislike seeing women in the West advertising their wares (and they dress their infant daughters in the same manner) as well as men who are shirtless or running around in shorts. It's a cultural thing. It's not Westerners' place to judge whose culture is superior. I never worried about being raped in my own bed in my own home until I came to the West. I keep several large dogs because of this. The other things Westerners do not know about (and likely the younger generations of Iranians either) is that one of the worst things caused by the American colonialization of Iran in the 60's and 70's especially was this attitude of cultural superiority which you can still see in most Western journalism today. Iranians developed what I would call "internalized racism" and many Iranians would tell me they felt their culture was inferior to the West. This is a tragic thing to witness, knowing the remarkable history of Iran and how much the West owes the East in general and Iran in particular. Israel's destruction of evidence of the Islamic Empire is another expression of this ethnosupremacy. This is why they are bombing the many archeological sites throughout the Middle East--currently they are trying to destroy as much of Baalbek as they can. The Israelis have said as much; that they want to destroy all evidence of the Islamic Empire so Muslims will have no reason to feel pride in who they are. So unless a journalist or diplomat bothers to learn something about the culture and the history, I would say just friggin can it. You're just advertising your ignorance. I am not Iranian, nor Muslim. But I do understand how abrasive Western values in social presentation, especially of women, is to the Iranian eye. Western women would be a lot happier with themselves if they understood the meaning of the word "modesty". And men as well. I know that sounds reactionary but it's true. The sexual objectification of women is offensive, no matter what culture you live in. And it's extreme in the West. Sadly, most Western women actually take it upon themselves to do it to themselves and each other. When i was a teen I did not wear a chador (though it would have been more comfortable--you could wear anything under one and they are lightweight which is nice in the desert sun), but I did sew a floor-length wool cape with a monk's cowl and carry an old man's walking stick with which to hit men with wandering fingers. I think the (new to me) norm of headscarves and hijab is pretty wonderful. And men who misbehave (I have been told) are punished. Would that have been the case when I was a girl. I was felt up or molested three times every block I walked. And I didn't blame the men as much as I did the rape of Iran by my own country. That is what caused it. And you can see in young women's desire to throw off those headscarves some of that psychological rape today. FYI, back in the 1920's, the Shah's father passed a law that women were not allowed to wear chadors. Most women refused to obey that law. That's something like requiring all Western women to wear bikinis or run around in their undies every time they go out. How many Western women would obey that law?
Beyond that, the US has a very big propaganda campaign in the West trying to get Iranian-Americans to take up the mantle of regime change. They have a lot of farsi-language media in Iran, too, trying to foment rebellion. Any story you hear about dissatisfaction with their government coming from a Western source is truly suspicious. Don't be so politically naive. Whatever dissatisfactions Iranians have with their government today, I'm sure they are extremely proud of their government. They are standing up to not only Israel, which used to be far more powerful and which has engaged in more conspiracies with the US to destroy Iran than I care to expose in this post, but they are also standing up to the US government and military. Amazing to me. Absolutely amazing. And the really astounding thing is that they are now more powerful militarily than the US because they do not focus on firepower; they focus on strategy. I'm not Iranian but I couldn't be prouder of what they have accomplished if I were.
As for Israel's wet dreams, we're not getting the truth about what's going on in Israel. It's a failed state and it won't be around for long. The more weapons and money we give them, the quicker they will fall. And they will take us with them. This is the real lesson to take from Trump's winning the election. The more unbridled his behavior is, the more freedom he gives the Far Right and Christian Zionists, the quicker he will take down the US economy. Not only will we be unable to finance the failing state of Israel, but our own economy will collapse. So watch the way Israel has enabled it's Far Right (both politically and religiously) and take heed. The US could fail in much the same way that Israel is. I'm not sure preventing this collapse is even possible at this point.
In any city in the U.S. if you take off your clothing and run around in your underwear or naked you will be detained and the police will run a 5150 on you to make sure you are not a danger to yourself or others. And you will probably be required to spend 72 hours in a Psych Ward. For a woman to do that in the U.S. is nuts--even when clothed we're in danger. I doubt very much that was a "protest". Stop spraying your so-called culture on other people. If you want to get an SSDI classification, this is what you do. Take off your clothes and run around naked and you will get an SSDI classification, complete with living allowance and paid medical care. Of course, you'll have to "prove" your crazy periodically which is really crazy-making.
The truth is the U.S. wants Iran's oil fields just as it wanted Iraq's, Syria's, Kuwait's, Palestine's, Lebanon's. Libya's, et al. It has nothing to do with concern for women's rights. If that were the case, why are American women under attack as I write this? What do you think outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, is? What a bunch of hooey. The US does not care about women's rights at all. If it did, Congress would have passed the Equal Rights Amendment DECADES ago.
Criminy. I grew up in Iran. A "radical feminist" since the age of 3, as an adolescent my tolerance of being touched by men in the streets of Tehran was zero. I will say that I thought they were molesting women, especially Western or Westernized Iranian women, because of the economic politics of the CIA and US government. Western countries contracted for the entirety of specific mono-crops from the Shah causing untold misery to a huge number of people. For one thing, we regularly had specific food shortages because the Shah would have monocrops raised, all or most of it sold outside the country, so that for a time you couldn't find onions or meat or rice or whatever it is they were selling to Western markets. The other issue was that farms had been part of a landlord system where villages attached to the farm had a symbiotic relationship with the landowning family they worked for. This disappeared when the Shah (and his father) took over these farms by force/intimidation. The government did not take care of the villages the way the landowning families had, and the men in these villages were unemployed and drifted to the cities where they were also unemployed, standing hopelessly on the streets watching middle-and upper-class women sashaying by in what culturally was a state of undress. I still dislike seeing women in the West advertising their wares (and they dress their infant daughters in the same manner) as well as men who are shirtless or running around in shorts. It's a cultural thing. It's not Westerners' place to judge whose culture is superior. I never worried about being raped in my own bed in my own home until I came to the West. I keep several large dogs because of this. The other things Westerners do not know about (and likely the younger generations of Iranians either) is that one of the worst things caused by the American colonialization of Iran in the 60's and 70's especially was this attitude of cultural superiority which you can still see in most Western journalism today. Iranians developed what I would call "internalized racism" and many Iranians would tell me they felt their culture was inferior to the West. This is a tragic thing to witness, knowing the remarkable history of Iran and how much the West owes the East in general and Iran in particular. Israel's destruction of evidence of the Islamic Empire is another expression of this ethnosupremacy. This is why they are bombing the many archeological sites throughout the Middle East--currently they are trying to destroy as much of Baalbek as they can. The Israelis have said as much; that they want to destroy all evidence of the Islamic Empire so Muslims will have no reason to feel pride in who they are. So unless a journalist or diplomat bothers to learn something about the culture and the history, I would say just friggin can it. You're just advertising your ignorance. I am not Iranian, nor Muslim. But I do understand how abrasive Western values in social presentation, especially of women, is to the Iranian eye. Western women would be a lot happier with themselves if they understood the meaning of the word "modesty". And men as well. I know that sounds reactionary but it's true. The sexual objectification of women is offensive, no matter what culture you live in. And it's extreme in the West. Sadly, most Western women actually take it upon themselves to do it to themselves and each other. When i was a teen I did not wear a chador (though it would have been more comfortable--you could wear anything under one and they are lightweight which is nice in the desert sun), but I did sew a floor-length wool cape with a monk's cowl and carry an old man's walking stick with which to hit men with wandering fingers. I think the (new to me) norm of headscarves and hijab is pretty wonderful. And men who misbehave (I have been told) are punished. Would that have been the case when I was a girl. I was felt up or molested three times every block I walked. And I didn't blame the men as much as I did the rape of Iran by my own country. That is what caused it. And you can see in young women's desire to throw off those headscarves some of that psychological rape today. FYI, back in the 1920's, the Shah's father passed a law that women were not allowed to wear chadors. Most women refused to obey that law. That's something like requiring all Western women to wear bikinis or run around in their undies every time they go out. How many Western women would obey that law?
Beyond that, the US has a very big propaganda campaign in the West trying to get Iranian-Americans to take up the mantle of regime change. They have a lot of farsi-language media in Iran, too, trying to foment rebellion. Any story you hear about dissatisfaction with their government coming from a Western source is truly suspicious. Don't be so politically naive. Whatever dissatisfactions Iranians have with their government today, I'm sure they are extremely proud of their government. They are standing up to not only Israel, which used to be far more powerful and which has engaged in more conspiracies with the US to destroy Iran than I care to expose in this post, but they are also standing up to the US government and military. Amazing to me. Absolutely amazing. And the really astounding thing is that they are now more powerful militarily than the US because they do not focus on firepower; they focus on strategy. I'm not Iranian but I couldn't be prouder of what they have accomplished if I were.
As for Israel's wet dreams, we're not getting the truth about what's going on in Israel. It's a failed state and it won't be around for long. The more weapons and money we give them, the quicker they will fall. And they will take us with them. This is the real lesson to take from Trump's winning the election. The more unbridled his behavior is, the more freedom he gives the Far Right and Christian Zionists, the quicker he will take down the US economy. Not only will we be unable to finance the failing state of Israel, but our own economy will collapse. So watch the way Israel has enabled it's Far Right (both politically and religiously) and take heed. The US could fail in much the same way that Israel is. I'm not sure preventing this collapse is even possible at this point.
In any city in the U.S. if you take off your clothing and run around in your underwear or naked you will be detained and the police will run a 5150 on you to make sure you are not a danger to yourself or others. And you will probably be required to spend 72 hours in a Psych Ward. For a woman to do that in the U.S. is nuts--even when clothed we're in danger. I doubt very much that was a "protest". Stop spraying your so-called culture on other people. If you want to get an SSDI classification, this is what you do. Take off your clothes and run around naked and you will get an SSDI classification, complete with living allowance and paid medical care. Of course, you'll have to "prove" your crazy periodically which is really crazy-making.
The truth is the U.S. wants Iran's oil fields just as it wanted Iraq's, Syria's, Kuwait's, Palestine's, Lebanon's. Libya's, et al. It has nothing to do with concern for women's rights. If that were the case, why are American women under attack as I write this? What do you think outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, is? What a bunch of hooey. The US does not care about women's rights at all. If it did, Congress would have passed the Equal Rights Amendment DECADES ago.