Iran's President is in New York to speak at the UN. He wanted Christian Amanpour to wear a hijab for their interview. She told him they weren't in Iran and he could shove that hijab.
Because you're not allowed to point out that our government and military act like "Team America World Police" without him twisting it into petty vengeance in another random context. Because he's a libertarian government employee who hates himself. It's like being a gay forced into a straight marriage. Except nobody's forcing him.
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Wow who's saying that about this situation? They sound really silly, would love a link so we can join you in making fun of them.
They were kung-fu fighting… https://twitter.com/rkotofficial/status/1572279180661821440?s=46&t=srhdbpeeUCdoyiP4AK6DQQ
The Iranian government is at the point of no return. When the government (or their proxies) openly threatens death to those protesting against it, you get either a violent revolution or an incredibly oppressive regime controlling everything.
Interesting article from The Week about the uprising. One of the wild cards that I didn't know was in the game is that the dead woman is from Kurdistan. One last problem for authorities in Tehran: Amini was from Iranian Kurdistan, where protests are fierce. At least 7 protesters have been killed in the region already. The country's Kurdish minority has long chafed at rule from Tehran, and this incident could be the trigger for a broader rebellion against the regime, one that has not just ideological features but ethno-religious ones as well. And while Khamenei and his enforcers might be able to fight a one-front battle against defenseless protesters, adding in a breakaway region could complicate the government's efforts to put down the uprising.
I can remember asking a college professor in the days after Gulf War 1.0 about the Kurds because I'd never heard of them before. He said that they were an interesting people who first show up in the historical record when Xenophon mentioned them in Anabasis and that they've never really had their own homeland. (As in, they've been ruled by someone else, instead of having their own government.) As we all know, the Kurds have been fucked over a lot recently. If Iran was one place where they could kinda be safe, and now that's gone, well, a person who has nothing to live for, has plenty of things to die for. And there's the fact that Iran does have a nuclear weapons program they're restarting. We let the Kurds in Iraq twist in the wind because Saddam didn't have nukes, and wasn't close to getting them. The Iranians? That's another story, and we know that Israel's certainly twitchy about the idea, and unlikely to engage in overt acts to stop it. Yeah, I can see this getting all kinds of dicey real quick.
Unfortunately, the U.S. has shit on the Kurds several times. As far as I know they still have an autonomous region in Iraq that is de-facto self-governing. The Turks regard the Kurds as terrorists and go apeshit over any suggestion of a Kurdish state. It's a volatile mix with at least one of the parties having nukes.
Iraq ain't exactly stable at the moment. Not sure how things have changed since then, but given how little of what happens in the outside world makes it into US media, especially when it might remind us of our mistakes...
Protesters appear to be in control of a city with a large Kurdish population. https://twitter.com/lilygrutcher/status/1573492707237969928?s=46&t=wGtBnl0jiYYctfORigBAwA
People who love licking the boot of authority calling for violence against those protesting unjust police persecution are a universal constant.
Iranian cops have shot and killed a woman at a protest https://twitter.com/joeyayoub/status/1574123227248353280?s=20&t=ZEDOK8OZaec1pRx_9sHtCA She was young and pretty, so I suspect that this is just going to add fuel to the anti-government flames.
Molotov cocktails are now being served. https://twitter.com/brigateplavi/status/1573949640533213185?s=20&t=Bj1IPRl1PTiHPsH0Kvaaqw
There's probably a difference between culture and violently oppressive theocracies, but I wouldn't expect you to understand it. That you'd seemingly like to force women to remove their scarves doesn't make you any less of a piece of shit than the men trying to force women to keep them on.
Something to keep in mind is that while we tend to use Persian as a synonym for Iranian they are barely a majority (and their % is shrinking). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicities_in_Iran They do however totally dominate the country politically, religiously culturally and linguistically. While my partner is Azeri they speak Farsi as their first language and Azeri second. Though they grew up in Tehran. In the northwest there are areas where Azeri is first but even there folks still speak Farsi.
State Security Forces open up with automatic fire during Friday prayers. CW: Gunshot wounds and dead bodies: https://twitter.com/fseifikaran/status/1575812579074547712?s=46&t=KaJNwe5PkbcmL_WkdBe2xQ https://twitter.com/noriraq41/status/1575854643808473088?s=46&t=KaJNwe5PkbcmL_WkdBe2xQ Anyone want to guess if this happened in a Persian region or in Baluchistan (and against Sunnis)?
It's not an imperialist western view to support an oppressed people. The US government always has its own interests, of course, but the people of Iran have a right to be free of its oppressive theocratic government.