Creedy: Die! Die! Why won’t you die! Why won’t you die?
V: Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mr Creedy … and Ideas are Bulletproof.
– From the 2005 dystopian film V For Vendetta, adapted from the 1988 DC Vertigo comics
Iran is on fire and a 22-year-old girl beaten to death for not wearing her hijab properly has set off its spread.
When I was in Teheran five years ago, I was mostly struck by how beautiful the men and women are. They were gracious hosts and most of all, they love having fun. They loved partying and would be constantly having dance parties at their house where they would throw their head scarfs off and the women would dance in lovely elegant moves.
The hijab for most of them was a forced measure. They absolutely abhorred it and many of the older ones remember protesting against it and getting arrested for protesting.
The Iranians I speak to felt they were cheated out of a life of peace and prosperity they had. Many remember the good times under the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who reigned from 1941 until he was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
As usual the instigators behind the revolution were the British who wanted Iranian oil for themselves while the Shah wanted to nationalise the oil for the people. Every time a country in the Middle East became too independent, the forces behind NATO would ensure that the powerful leader not complying, be replaced by a puppet. We saw that with Saddam Hussein, we saw that with Gaddafi and we saw that with the Shah. In fact Khomeini was not even Iranian, he was a British nationality with Indian Muslim background. I remember an Iranian in Teheran saying “Look at his face. He does not even look like one of us.”
Khomeini (or the people behind him) promised free healthcare, free education, free electricity, free water but he lied freely. The people got nothing. He then imposed radicalised fundamental Islamism that replaced the moderate Islamism that the Shah of Iran practised. They removed the secular Persian Lion and Sun which was the original icon from the middle of the flag. Many Iranians still call themselves Persians and fly the old flag to remind themselves of an era when they could be proud to call themselves Iranians and when they had the freedom to live as they wanted.
The regime in power after the Islamic Revolution forced women to wear the hijab and even had a morality police going around ensuring women wore it right.
The freedom of the Iranians was robbed in every single way, beyond this. The extremely rich commodities of oil, minerals and other natural resources were no longer theirs, so the people got poorer while the regime got richer. Women were constantly bullied to not dance, sing or wear what they pleased in public. Protests against rising prices of everything were met with violent repercussion by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
A Malaysian Iranian told me recently, “If the people had guns, the regime would have been overthrown a long time ago.” Looking at the overarching tyranny of the Iranian government, I am wondering perhaps the Americans are right about being adamant in keeping to their Second Amendment. Where the Shah was loved, the tyrannical Islamic regime in Iran is reviled and over the 50 years of making its people poorer while funding terrorism elsewhere, waves and weaves of protest, despite police and military backlash had been steadily building.
But nothing has been monumental as the recent protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, a lovely, spunky 22-year-old beaten to death by the morality police in Teheran for her improper wearing of the hijab. This time people stopped being scared. They tore the Ayatollah’s pictures off walls and chanted against him. They marched and overturned police cars. They were unstoppable. Fifty deaths and counting but the new revolution of the people is just beginning. From northeast Kurdish territory to Teheran and Esfahan, there is no stopping them.
The hijab issue has now become a clarion call to overthrow a despot regime that has cheated and stolen from the people, making a once majestic country, a pariah nation. And now the Iranian people have help. When the regime turned off national internet access so that people could not communicate, Elon Mush came in with his Starlink to give the people of Iran total internet access.
The world finally hears the cries of the Iranian people. God willing they live again with the pride and passion of their forefathers and may they prosper.
Note: At the time of writing, a beautiful young teenager Hadis Najaf died with six bullets in her because she was protesting Mahsa’s death.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune. Feedback can reach the writer at beatrice@ibrasiagroup.com
