Showing empathy to the female survivors of the Christchurch mosque attacks by wearing a hijab was a PR trick that earned Jacinda Ardern worldwide media applause. Some said she should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.
Three brave Iranian women have a more realistic and entirely different view of the hijab and it has cost them dearly to make the world aware of it.
The Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced civil rights activists and Mozhgan Keshavarz, Yasaman Ariani, and her mother Monireh Arabshahi, to 55 years in prison combined. The three are currently held in Varamin Prison.
According to HRANA, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the three were tried and sentenced by Judge Moghiseh on the charges of “conspiracy and assembly to act against national security, propaganda against the regime, and facilitating corruption and depravity”. Not fully covering your body in Iran is corrupt and depraved.
“Their sentences were delivered without the presence of their attorney.”
Women are second class citizens in Iran, undeserving of legal representation in court, and so these three received a combined total of 55 years in jail for going out in public sans the mandatory hijab.
“On March 8th, the International Women’s Day, the three civil activists offered flowers and pastry to passengers in Tehran’s subway. The video of this event went viral on social media which caused an uproar in state media.”
What say you, Ms Ardern, about the cost these three women willingly paid in their fight for Muslim women’s rights? In light of your cheap media trick where international media attention cost you nothing at all. Your action flew in the face of the repression faced by Muslim women under Sharia law. Under the Sharia they face death and imprisonment for drawing attention to their lack of human rights as women. If they attempt to assert their basic human rights they are severely dealt with.
Your PR trick for your own political gain was an insult to millions of Muslim women fighting for equal rights that include not being forced to wear a hijab. Not in a million years would you do what these three did. After Christchurch, you had an opportunity to make a statement regarding equal rights for Muslim women but you chose not to.
You would never willingly swap places with these brave Iranian women, yet one of these three is worth 100 of you. Their political stance cost them 55 years of freedom. Your stance after Christchurch cost you nothing and gained the adoration of international media. Imagine what you might have done from your political platform to promote the cause of women like these had you been paying attention to their plight.
