Iranian women deserve our support

12 October 2022

The women of Iran need international support but our government continues to stay silent whilst others such as Mandla Mandela, Judge Siraj Desai, and Africa4Palestine actively support a regime that the entire world is condemning for the gross violation of women’s rights. On the 16th of September this year, it was announced that a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, had died days after being arrested and taken into custody by Iran’s so-called morality police for the unspeakable crime of wearing an “improper Hijab”.

Mahsa, who was twenty-two, had been visiting the capital of Tehran from Saqqez, in Iran’s Kurdistan province, and was arrested on site for not wearing her head-covering to the satisfaction of “Guidance Patrol” officers, also known as “modesty police”. This came about just weeks after Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, cracked down on women’s rights and ordered stricter enforcement of the country’s already oppressive mandatory dress code.

Despite the inevitable denials by the Iranian government that Mahsa had died due to “natural causes”, multiple eyewitnesses came forward to proclaim that Mahsa had indeed been beaten on her arrest and slipped into a coma shortly after arriving in prison; a coma from which she never awoke.

Within hours of Mahsa being declared dead, nationwide protests, led primarily by women, broke out. From Tehran to Mahsa’s hometown of Saqqez, these protests have called not just for an end to these draconian dress codes, but for women’s rights, in general, and for the end to the regime of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the utter dismantling of the radical Islamist government that has been ruling the country since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

The protests have also stretched far beyond the borders of Iran and have been taken up by countries and individuals (especially women) across the globe calling for justice for Mahsa, and the end to the Iranian government’s oppression of women.

Yet, in South Africa, we still have not heard any word from the South African government on the matter. Indeed South Africa seems to have turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Khamenei and his henchmen. Or worse, there are those in our country who remain loyal to the Iranian regime, despite innocent protestors being murdered purely for standing up to a government. The same government, that has, for decades, been one of the world’s worst offenders against human - and especially women’s - rights.

DIRCO (Department of International Relations and Cooperation) Minister, Naledi Pandor, refused to use her platform at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recently to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or even to voice her support for his victims. Instead, once again, rather used it to attack Israel and those supporting Ukraine.

It is not just at the government level that we are seeing support for the Iranian regime but in parts of civil society as well. Take the legal ombudsman, Judge Siraj Desai, who is currently under investigation by the JSC (Judicial Conduct Committee) for his comments about Iran. Desai has been a fervent supporter of the Ayatolla, going so far as to liken him to, of all people, former South African president, Nelson Mandela.

Anti-Israel group, Africa4Palestine has highlighted the comparison and erected a billboard in Pretoria, making the same claim. ANC member of parliament and Africa4Palestine’s most prominent supporter, Mandla Mandela, then participated in a tour of Iran. Mandla Mandela met with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, where he received a “human rights” award from the regime.

Constantly siding with those who represent the antithesis of the South African constitution that former president Nelson Mandela fought for is a stain on our national consciousness. As South Africans, it is past time to call on our government to publicly condemn the regime in Iran for its human rights abuses, especially against women, that stand in such stark contradiction to the constitution and the very principles upon which our democracy was founded.

Rolene Marks, Spokesperson, South African Zionist Federation