Solidarity With Women’s Struggle in Iran

Protests in Iran have been persisting for over a month now since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The young woman, known by her Kurdish birth name Jina, was taken into custody by Iranian religious morality police while visiting Tehran on September 13, 2022, after she was singled out for not properly wearing her hijab. Amini was then transported to a police station where she collapsed and was later pronounced dead. Her family accused Iranian forces of police brutality resulting in Amini’s death, but the government of Iran has stood by their claims that Amini suffered a heart attack related to previous health complications.

The death of Jina Mahsa Amini sparked a wave of protests and spontaneous street uprisings in Iran led by women speaking out against the government’s strict laws regarding enforcement of the conservative hijab dress codes. Populated and led largely by women and young people, the protestors continue to take to the streets despite the violent reaction from Iranian state police forces. At the time of this writing, the government has imprisoned approximately 15,000 people and killed over 300. The labor classes have also harnessed the spirit of the movement by enacting their own protests, from oil refinery and sugar factory workers to teachers, students and shopkeepers engaging in walkouts and strikes.

The United States and Europe have also seen their own protests in unity with the Iranian protest movement. Los Angeles and Washington D.C. are among the American cities to host large events in support of the women in Iran battling for their bodily autonomy, with those in attendance drawing direct comparison to the recent Supreme Court rulings that aim to strip away abortion rights in the US. Tens of thousands in Berlin recently rallied in the streets to honor Mahsa Amini and call for revolution in Iran. Muslim women and people of Middle Eastern descent are cutting their hair or removing their hijabs to show solidarity with the Iranian protests. The chants for “Woman, Life, Liberty” (jin, jiyan, asadi) or “Freedom, Freedom” have been ringing through the streets from Tabriz and Karaj to London and Toronto.

The reaction from the government of Iran has been swift and deadly, with continued suggestion that the masses of protestors within the country are being fueled and supported by Western powers with a goal of regime change in Iran. The United States in addition to other United Nations and European Union affiliated countries have been vocal in their denunciation of the violent Iranian state response to the unrest, with the U.S. and others enacting new sanctions against Iran as a result. Economic sanctions on exports and international trade have been levied against Iran many times since the 1979 revolution that led to the Islamic Republic’s rise to power, making it the most sanctioned country in the world until this past February after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These attempts from the West to mainly restrict Iran’s lucrative oil and gas industry result in the oppression of the Iranian people at large, who are forced to suffer under the weight of economic recession and inflation. Unemployment rates are around 12%, on top of an inflation rate just under 40%. A cup of coffee in the United States would cost you over 100,000 Iranian Rials ($2.36 USD) due to the devaluation of the country’s currency. Sanctions not only impose dire economic effects on the people of Iran, but also lead to a shortage of life-saving medicines for the average citizen. However, the rich and powerful are still able to skirt the negative effects of American sanctions. In 2020, there was a 21.6% growth of millionaires (USD value) in Iran, much faster than the global average of 6.3%, and the collective wealth of these millionaires outpaced that growth at 24.3%. Not only have the sanctions caused economic despair among the average Iranian citizen, but they’ve increased the chasm that’s been created between the Iranian labor class and the bourgeoisie.

Sanctions are not the only way that the people of Iran have had to endure the United States imposing its will on their country for nearly 70 years. The U.S. and U.K. fomented the removal of former democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 after his moves to nationalize the oil industry and remove all members of foreign corporate organizations from Iran. In 2013, the CIA released declassified documents showing their explicit involvement in the orchestration and execution of the plans to install the West-aligned Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in addition to detailing how the CIA were directly responsible for the bankrolling of agitators within Iran to enact the coup. Since the revolution against the Shah led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic in 1979, the United States and its allies have used their power of sanction and economic isolation to weaken and destabilize Iran to the best of their ability. Now, with people in cities across Iran united in the streets to protest against their government, the United States is facing an opportunity to once again stack the deck in their favor.

Even though the Western powers have taken a firm stance in support of the Iranian protest movement, that does not mean that their conclusions will benefit the Iranian people at large. Whether its people marching through the streets of Tehran shouting, “Death to the dictator!” or it’s the Iranian community abroad hoping to bring secular democracy back to their home country, bringing an end to the rule of the Islamic Republic has become the aim of many protest supporters seeking retribution for the repressive brutality being perpetrated by the Iranian government. The United States and its allies act in vain self-interest through their sanctions and stern words, as they see regime change only as a method to maintain further control and sway over large swaths of the oil-rich countries in the Middle East like Iraq, UAE and Kuwait. The Western capitalists view Iran as another piece on the geopolitical chessboard, just waiting to be brought to heel under the imperial boot. Flowery language and ostentatious dramatics from our Republicans and Democrats will not ensure a government that truly supports the labor class in Iran, nor will a hand-picked successor by the United States look to secure a higher standard of living for the one third of Iranians that live below the poverty line.

There are many aspects to the current Iranian government that deem it worthy of a people’s revolution: violence, religious oppression and severe economic distress are chief among those. However, it’s not the United States and their economic interests but the Iranian people that deserve the right to their own self-determination. Time and time again the United States and its allies have pursued foreign intervention under the guise of peacekeeping, only to install a puppet government beholden to the whims of the West.

There are currently two different rivals maneuvering for their chance at turning Iran into America’s newest client state: the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)—led by Maryam Rajavi—and the son of the former Shah of Iran, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. The NCRI is the diplomatic political wing of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a former leftist militant group currently based in France and Albania that is considered the most prominent political opposition group to the current Iranian government. Once inspired by Marxist theory, the MEK and NCRI have shifted their political stance to one of reform and liberal social equality. The group was classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. until 2012 for the bombings and assassinations they carried out against U.S. and Islamic Republic leaders post-1979 revolution, but MEK has since garnered support from American warhawks such as former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Reza Pahlavi is the favorite of older Iranian expatriates that desire a return to the pre-revolution monarchy of the 1950’s-70’s. Since his father was ousted by the Islamic Republic in 1979, Pahlavi has maintained his government while exiled in the West. Fashioning himself as a liberal democrat and a champion of human rights, Pahlavi campaigns for Iranian regime change comfortably from his Potomac estate in Maryland. His statements denouncing the Islamic Republic and the Ayatollah are often paired with a flaunting of the immense economic upturn that was presided over by his father during his reign as Shah. Conveniently left out of these proclamations are the thousands of people that were arrested or killed during the Shah’s reign for speaking out against the monarchy. With an estimated net worth of anywhere between $1-2 billion, the Crown Prince has enjoyed wealth and luxury in his exile. Pahlavi is not the most popular option for new leadership in Iran, according to polling of Iranians living abroad, but his immense wealth and connections to powerful Western political leaders could make him the most seamless selection as a political leader if the Islamic Republic falls.

The options presented before the Iranian people are not ideal and seem to range from bad to worse. The supposed torchbearers for the reintroduction of Iranian secular democracy all have dubious connections to the imperial West, and there are no political alternatives within Iran that have presented themselves as an option outside of the current Islamic Republic or its challengers abroad. Under the current government, Iranian citizens will continue to square off with the armed police forces and are sure to deal with continued persecution for participation in the protests against the rule of the Islamic Republic. The energy of the women, youth and working classes in Iran that have been strengthened through continued protest is in danger of dwindling with no functioning political groups in place to harness that power and direct it towards positive change in material conditions for millions of Iranians. The strength of will is evident in the streets of Iran, but it requires revolutionary leadership to guide that power. 

Fortunately, as the oppressed peoples within their country organize against the Islamic Republic, the time is ripe as never before to build the programs necessary to guide a socialist revolution in Iran. As Marxists and socialists in the United States, our goal should not be simply to wish that the Iranian people are afforded the opportunity to trade out one oppressor for another. Our desire should be to act as a mouthpiece for the demands of those taking the streets in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz and Kerman. The Western imperialists hungry for regime change are not friends in this fight. Their alignment with the goals of the protestors should be called into question at every turn, and their desires to further the capitalist stranglehold over the Middle East should be unmasked beneath the guise of their liberal convictions.

We support the Iranian women, students, minority groups, working class and poor in their revolutionary struggle against the Islamic Republic. We chant in unison with the calls of “Woman, Life, Freedom” demanding equality and democratic rights for all women against oppressive conservative regulation. We stand with the demands of “Bread, Jobs and Freedom” in the organization of a general strike of the working class to fight against the Iranian bourgeois that remain unaffected by international sanctions. We support the self-determination and revolutionary reorganization of the Iranian people, with the implementation of socialism to strengthen the masses in their fight against the imperialist and monarchist regimes. In the words of Vladimir Lenin, “Socialists cannot achieve their great aim without fighting against all oppression of nations,” and Cincinnati Socialists stand with the people of Iran in their battle against national oppression!