![\"Iran-protests-2022-10th-day-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Iran-protests-2022-10th-day-1.jpg\" "\\"Iran-protests-2022-10th-day-1\\"")
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The nationwide Iran protests continue despite the regime\u2019s heavy crackdown<\/a>. Apart from people\u2019s bravery, what stunts any observer is the role of Iran\u2019s most undermined citizens in leading this uprising: the Women.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Originally erupted due to the brutal yet tragic murder of the 22-years-old Mahsa Amini by the regime\u2019s morality police, the new wave of dissent across Iran demonstrates a national will to topple a corrupt and misogynist system that has brought nothing but misery for Iranians.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Footages obtained by the Iranian opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)<\/a>, show brave young women facing and pushing back the brutal, oppressive forces. A video from Shiraz shows a girl on a car cheering the crowd to chant \u201cdeath to the dictator.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But it is crucial to understand that these braveries are not impromptu. The role of the Iranian women demonstrates a great potential the regime has failed to oppress.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since taking power in 1979, the ruling theocracy targeted Iranian women, as their progress in society starkly contrasted the mullahs\u2019 medieval rule and backward thinking. A year into the 1979 revolution, the regime\u2019s founder Ruhollah Khomeini made wearing the hijab mandatory.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Khomeini\u2019s thugs soon started harassing women by splashing acids on their faces or attacking them with knives. Hassan Rouhani, who later became the regime\u2019s president, acknowledged that he was the first official who forced women to wear hijabs<\/a> in any office affiliated with the army. Rouhani, who was later portrayed as a \u201cmoderate\u201d by the regime\u2019s apologists, continued to keep his so-called \u201cmoderate\u201d views, vis-\u00e0-vis women, by hanging over 150 of them in 8 years.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1979, as Iran\u2019s sole progressive Muslim<\/a> opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), quickly condemned mandatory veiling. MEK women, who were willingly wearing headscarves, were on the frontlines of protests in the early days after the revolution, defending the right of their sisters to choose their cloth. Tens of thousands of brave MEK women were executed in the 1980s, forming most martyrs fallen for a free Iran. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shocking testimonies of the survivors of the 1988 massacre — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
Parvin Pouregbal
Political prisoner: 1981-1991
In the women\u2019s ward, hall 1, all the women were executed, no survivors; in Hall 3, all the MEK members were executed. #Iran<\/a> #ProsecuteRaisiNOW<\/a> #UNGA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Kde0vmRU5p<\/a><\/p>\n