The courage of the Iranian women who are rising up there overwhelms me.
We must repeat the guts, which is heroic, of these demonstrators who know that they can die from this choice to take to the streets daily. The repression of the old religious monkeys who govern them is blind and terrifying. They demonstrate what fundamentalism and the instrumentalization of religion are most spewing of perfidy.
Well… I’m doing whatever it takes to pick myself up with a superb fatwa behind my head, me there?
Listen, gentlemen ill-intentioned imams, know that I am just a simple anecdote, aging and without echo, who takes himself for a columnist, and not dangerous for two pennies.
So pay me no attention, and consider these few lines as those of a decommissioned and fossilized former politician who wants to put on an interesting show.
And I wouldn’t be able to draw any caricature, or write any novel whatsoever.
Phew! I hope I’ve had enough…
Now, there is no question here of drooling over religion, and especially not over women who wear the hijab. And besides, I didn’t understand that it was a revolt against the Muslim religion.
That being the case, we are not obliged to dub all the masquerades, such as that of the regime of terror of the old primates of Tehran.
As for the hijab, the veil, we don’t have to judge those who wear it, especially not us, the males here. If a woman feels better about herself wearing it, so much the better! This gives a happier person on Earth, who will be better off. I don’t think the same, on the other hand, for other accoutrements imposed on certain Muslim women…
Precision, despite my feelings on the subject, I will not deny the good that I think of Law 21, but that is another story.
But this veil can have another meaning, precisely accursedly political and degrading for women who do not want to wear it, when it is imposed as an imprint by certain madmen who manipulate this Muslim faith, and interpret the Koran to their advantage, especially for retain power at all costs in Iran. Let us also remember that all the great religions were created and are managed by men.
And precisely, this is the signal that the Iranian women are sending us today.
The veil has become THE symbol of the oppression of their tyrants, and they want to have a choice, since in Iran this choice does not exist, women must wear the veil, a political obligation called religious.
Allow me in passing to salute the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, who perhaps have little or nothing to do with it in Iran, Shiite, but who have raged a lot in the region, with an intimidating proselytism, so that women wear the cap.
Moreover, how does this balance of power between Iranian women and the regime resonate in Quebec? I know few women of Iranian origin in our country, apart from two remarkable ones, for whom I have enormous respect.
First of all, Nimâ Machouf, this brilliant researcher, epidemiologist and politician, whose talents and numerous analyzes in the media during the pandemic were among other things appreciated.
And Olga Farman, a prominent lawyer who heads the Quebec office of Norton Rose Fulbright. Many times awarded professionally despite his young age.
In both cases, intelligence, heart and common sense.
Nimâ is very active in mobilization in Montreal.
The Iranians here need to see each other, to come together to share their fears, analyze the situation and the news. Because the regime shoots women and children blindly, without discrimination. A generally effective terrorist tactic to sow horror. You may not be involved in the revolt movement and still die from it. Thus, one or one of yours can taste it in spite of him or her.
Nimâ sadly notes the lukewarmness of the solidarity network in Quebec in the face of the cause. But there are explanations all the same.
How to join the protest without the radical right usurping these motivations, and the question of the veil, to serve its Islamophobic discourse.
Local Iranians are also anxiously awaiting the Canadian government’s expulsion of wealthy notables from their country, allied with the regime, who have sneaked in here as foreign investors.
Olga, she has less militancy on the clock, but acts in her own way.
We are talking about a woman born in Rivière-du-Loup, of Iranian immigrant parents, who experienced in elementary school the prejudices of the time of the book by Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer Never without my daughter1, published in 1987, which in Quebec had become, for many people at the time, the familiar image of Iran. This grown-up child now sits on the board of directors of our largest financial institution, the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec. All the same !
Receiving an award from the Quebec Chamber of Commerce recently, she gave a speech of thanks centered on female leadership, and especially support for Iranian women, which earned her a long standing ovation from an emotional audience. It’s fun.
For Nimâ and Olga, Iranian society has reached a point of no return. They don’t see how it could go back. This people who rose up in unison for one of the most fundamental rights of women today asks for nothing less than the change of the religious fundamentalist system and the dictatorship.
Inextricable, especially with already more than 400 deaths so far2.
I dare not ask myself what is our biggest problem in Quebec, compared to all that. In the wadding up to the ears…
Never without my daughter
Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer
477 pages
1. Director Brian Gilbert made it into a movie in 1991, starring Sally Field.
Between us
Three overwhelming performances of hope.
Barayein honor of the murdered young Mahsa Amini, performed by Shervin Hajipour, which became the anthem of the uprising.
And two videos of the interpretation of Bella Ciao in the Persian language, with images of protest in the streets.