Iran Women, Thousands Jailed For “Moral Vices”
From today’s BBC News comes another story of Iran’s crackdown on “vice.”
Iranian newspapers have printed a list of moral vices that the police are targeting, including wearing make-up and hats instead of headscarves.
The police say they will also suppress “decadent” films, drugs and alcohol.
This year has seen one of the most ferocious crackdowns on un-Islamic behaviour and improper Islamic dress by the authorities for at least a decade.
But it has now emerged the current campaign has the overt backing of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The police are warning they will deal seriously with any women who dare to wear short trousers, skimpy overcoats or skirts that are revealingly transparent or have slits in them.
Wearing boots instead of full length trousers will not be tolerated, nor will hats instead of headscarves.
Indeed, the police stipulate that small headscarves are out – the scarf must cover a woman’s head and neck completely.
And what happens to these women who dare to wear such “immoral” clothing?
In the last six months, tens of thousands of women have been warned or arrested because of their clothes.
Source: BBC News: Iran launches anti-vice crackdown
What fascinates me is the assertions here in the United States that Iran is a “peaceful” country, that their push for “all things nuclear” is for “peaceful” purposes. And yet this “peaceful” country is throwing their women into jail for daring to wear such “lewd” clothing as “skimpy overcoats” or not covering their “whole neck.”
My opinion of feminists continues to plummet. Feminists are supposed to speak out for all women, everywhere. Our feminists have become lazy, resting on their mother’s laurels. They are more concerned with bringing down the “evil” Dick Cheney and George Bush and where to get a good Brazilian Wax than the plight of women in Iran who would like to be able to wear mascara without going to jail.
The silence of our feminists about the plight of Middle Eastern women has been highly illuminating. They claim to carry the banner for all women but in the end, just a select few. After all, they have important work to do. Whatever that work is, it doesn’t include speaking out about the treatment of the women who live under the hardline rule of Islamist extremists.
By LBG
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Originally posted at DBKP at Blogger.
