Middle East

Iranian women: This is not just about hijab

Published

06.12.2022 11:01

“From the beginning of the revolution we were told that those in power shouldn’t be criticized, but if we had been allowed to criticize, we wouldn’t have so much embezzlement, theft and betrayal.”

These were the words of Azam Taleghani, who was among the most prominent individuals of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and being among the four women representatives of the first parliament after the Revolution, in one of her speeches right before her death in 2019. Azam Taleghani, who was imprisoned under the Shah regime and whose father was a quite influential cleric, has been saying about the parliamentary debates regarding the compulsory hijab “If the same obligation was not given on men, then this cannot be obligated on women either”. Quite interestingly, Taleghani never took off her dark veil called “chador” during her entire political career, or even after that. And her countless applications for presidential candidacy with her dark veil, has ended in the same way as it did with all other women: It was rejected by the Constitutional Council.

What do these women want?

43 years after the revolution made by Taleghani and many other women and men, against the imperialism and its inner collaborator the Shah regime, the Iranian women are once again on the streets at the forefront. This wave of pretests that began after Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran and died soon after in custody, is the largest wave of protests ever since the 1979 Revolution. Iranian people are taking on the streets in almost all provinces of the country. So, what are the demands from the streets, what do these women want, to what extent does the Iranian society support these protests and where does imperialism stand in the face of these protests? When the provocative reports from the west and the social media misinformation is combined with harsh internet restrictions, it gets very hard to reach any information from the region. Restrictions and misinformation have reduced the demands of the street protesters down to the issue of compulsory hijab practices.

It is seen that some women do not wear hijab on the streets of Tehran after the protests. (December 5, 2022). PHOTO: Fatemeh Bahrami/AA

‘The main problem is The Constitution’

However, the Iranian women tell that the compulsory hijab practices, that were stereotyped with the Iranian women, have already relaxed in most regions before the protests. According to them hijab is not a problem on its own. A small textile business owner Vida S. (39) stated that the restrictions were mostly ignored before the protests, while driving or in public places such as cafes: “Especially after the protests, most women go out in the streets with their hair unveiled.”

A housewife Sara N. (38) also states that the compulsory hijab does not affect the social life deeply, on its own. However, she thinks that women should be free to wear the outfit they desire, just as men do. A schoolteacher from Tabriz Nasrin N. (42) stated the following on the compulsory hijab, which she defined as a formality and as an artificial practice: “The main problem that affects the social life, are the practices that are caused by the Sharia Law. For example, men can “divorce” their wives as they wish, after paying a one-time allowance called mahr. The same does not apply for women. A woman could not “divorce” her husband because she did not love him. She has to prove there is a heavy misconduct of the man, which allows the woman to get a divorce, such as domestic violence or drug abuse. And even if she gets the divorce, she could not get the child’s custody after the age of 7, if the man is still not keeping the same manners mentioned above. A woman cannot get a passport without her husband’s or her father’s permission. She cannot get an equal share of the inheritance as her male siblings. They cannot be judges, or even witnesses at homicide cases. And even at other trials, a female witness is given half credibility of a male witness.”

Sara (left), Seher (upper right) and Nesrin (lower right)

‘The conditions were already there, hijab just ignited the fire’

Vida tells that the main problem that took all these people to the streets, were economic. Nasrin says “Iranian currency is constantly losing value. Our purchasing power has dropped significantly, people are struggling to survive. The hijab just ignited the protests, in such state of turmoil. It is not just the women, but everyone is taking on the streets. This is a revolutionary movement”. And when I asked one of my Iranian friends, who has not taken off her veil even in Turkiye and whom I know very closely, whether these protests were actually because of hijab or not, she responded “Did you join the Gezi Park protests in 2013 because of just trees?”.

Sahar, whose entire youth was spent in Tehran and was spent with “the fear of going to hell because of her hair”, says hijab is also one of the main issues. Sahar speaks of the difficulties she had 30 years ago when she studies arts in university: “A group of theology students would come to us and call us ‘degenerates’. I was subjected to a lot of discrimination as a woman playing a music instrument. I was not allowed to play in front of men, I needed a license for concerts. Or some of our song lyrics were censored because it had sexual meanings, even if these songs belonged to a famous Islamic cleric…”

‘Women are pushed into two different lifestyles’

Sahar says that women are subjected to severe discrimination because they were only perceived sexually and are pushed into having two different lifestyles one out in the streets, and one at home. Sahar says that women are being treated as “second class citizens”: “Laws are heavily on men’s favor in marriages, in business and in inheritance. However in all developed and developing countries, law are supposed to protect women and children. It is exactly the opposite in Iran. We wish for a new constitution in which we are represented as equals with men; we demand freedom of speech, freedom to criticize and to have universal suffrage in elections that are made free and fair.”

Claiming that religion and politics should be separated, Vida describes her demands as follows: “I do not want to be seen or treated as a terrorist. We want better life conditions as we deserve as the Iranian people”. Sara also has no other expectations other than “a normal life which men and women have same rights”. The obstetrician Delara N. (53) also says she wants live a “normal life”. For her, the way to do this is to “give women all the rights they deserve in social, political and private life that which would be all aspects of a human life”.

‘The fear of the imperialists…’

We asked them about the support messages for the protests in Iran, from the USA and EU. All women we have spoken to have a clear stance against the US and EU. Vida says “The intellect and the culture of the Iranian people are the reason for the imperialist powers’ fears. That is why there is no chance that they would support our development as a nation. We would stay restricted until this problem is resolved and that is exactly what the imperialists want, they do not wish an Iran which has gotten over its internal problems. Therefore, the US and Europe also wants the current government to stay in power, for their own benefits. That is because the internal problems will stay as long as the government stays in power”.

Sara highlights that the globalization has severely damaged a country’s will to take its own decisions not only in Iran but in all countries, and that the Western colonialism is no more legitimized through war but through “problems” such as race or sectarianism, while adding that: “The West does not see any benefits from the consequences of these protests. If they ever knew they would benefit from this, they would put out a much more decisive intervention”.

And according to Nasrin, who said the US and Europe is not content with these protests since they do not desire a peaceful Middle East, the messages of support from the West are just a façade and not quite sincere: “They do not want to subject Iranians. We have already seen the examples of their subjugations from Iraq and Afghanistan”.

Vida says “The intellect and the culture of the Iranian people are the reason for the imperialist powers’ fears.”

The power behind these protests

All the demands that rise out of Iran is neither unexpected when we think about the women influence in universities, academia and the social life despite all the obstacles, nor is it unexpected to find the “great powers” looking for an opportunity whenever there is turmoil in our region … Despite all this, the demands of equality from women and economic demands from the public are balancing out with being an instrument to imperialism.

Just like Taleghani was not a “servant to the US” or a “Western lapdog” or a “traitor”, nether are Sahar, Sara or Vida who were forced to take on streets for the sake of having a normal life. The things that happened, show that those who are benefitting from the Sharia Law, need to finally listen to the women that have suffered from it.

The economic crisis that is deepening by each day and enslaving the population to severe poverty under heavy sanctions from the West, stands as one of the bigger factors behind the protests in Iran. The Iranians know very well about the conditions for these bursts, during which great changes took place. The Iranian clergy was not able to stand against the Shah before its own interests were actually threatened with a land reform and before the merchants connected to the clergy were threatened by the global industries. And this was during when the most radical “reforms” were taking place, including the ban on hijab. The clergy only remembered its authority of inspecting the laws according to the Sharia Law in the land reforms of 1963, since when they first got this right in the first constitution of Iran in 1906 constitution.

Nature will take its course

So, it is “in accordance with the usual situation” when a class a group or an individual to raise their voices when their economic assurances are taken away and when they are suffering through hardships and difficulties. Looking for a “foreign intervention” in such situations, is basically as wrong as rowing against the tide. No country, and especially not the United States, would not export any “revolutions” or “reforms” to Iran, as easy as they did to Arab countries. That is because Iran is one of the two regional powers that has strong state traditions and great cultural accumulations, whose society relies on the concept of anti-imperialism. The Iranian government either finds a new course for this river tide, or “drains the entire river” for now, which will flow even stronger in the next couple years. But sooner or later, that river has to flow towards its riverbed.

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Middle East

Trump’s Board of Peace drafts first Gaza base contract

Published

6 days ago

07/08/2026

Harici.com.tr

US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” has drafted its first construction contract related to Gaza since it was established in January. According to an August 6 report by The Guardian, the contract provides for the construction of a basic 150-person military base where Moroccan troops would be stationed.

Trump established the Board of Peace to carry out his plans for the territory following Israel’s two-year assault on Palestinians in Gaza. The board has begun preparations for the International Stabilization Force that is due to operate in Gaza.

Morocco had agreed to send troops to the International Stabilization Force, which was created to maintain control in Gaza on behalf of Israel and the US.

Construction contract awarded to US firm active in Iraq

The construction contract was awarded to Louisiana-based Arkel International, which previously carried out various projects in Iraq on behalf of the US government.

However, a Board of Peace official said in an email to The Guardian that the contracts had not yet been finalized. “The Board is in the final stages of preparing various contracts. None has yet been finalized,” the official said.

The official said one of the possible contracts covered the construction of facilities for the International Stabilization Force to support the implementation of the security and governance arrangements in the road map. “This contract is one of many that will be necessary for Gaza’s future,” the official said.

150 troops initially, later 5,000

Under the contract, the base for Moroccan troops would be built on a site measuring 100 metres by 120 metres. The facility, which would house troops deployed on rotation from a base in Israel, would be located about two kilometres from the Israeli border.

The base is planned for the 60% of the Gaza Strip that is under direct occupation by the Israeli military.

According to a draft contract previously seen by The Guardian, the facility would later be expanded to accommodate 5,000 International Stabilization Force troops from different countries.

“Smart city” plan scaled back

Trump said in February 2025 that the US would “take over” Gaza and “own” it.

At the Board of Peace’s first meeting in January 2026, Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner unveiled a “master plan” aimed at transforming Gaza into a high-tech coastal “smart city”.

However, the Trump-led board later scaled back its sweeping ambitions for Gaza’s post-war reconstruction and shifted towards a limited pilot project in the southern buffer zone near Rafah.

The plan envisages “humanitarian aid” camps enclosed by “fences”, where Palestinians would be kept under strict control. Critics have described the compounds as “concentration camps”.

Israel has destroyed or damaged about 80% of the structures in Gaza, including homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and mosques, in attacks aimed at making the territory uninhabitable.

Israeli ministers, settler activists and journalists have called for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian population and opened to Jewish settlers.

Israel is reported to have killed at least 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children. Independent estimates indicate that the true death toll could run into the hundreds of thousands.

Middle East

Israeli court blocks Ben-Gvir plan to place crocodiles in prison moats

Published

1 week ago

04/08/2026

Harici.com.tr

The Jerusalem District Court has temporarily halted a plan spearheaded by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to construct crocodile-filled moats around prisons housing thousands of Palestinian detainees.

According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, the ruling follows a petition filed by the animal rights organization Let the Animals Live against Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, Ben-Gvir, and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). The group argued that the project would lead to the mistreatment of the crocodiles and place prison staff in danger.

In a decision announced Sunday, Judge Avraham Rubin stated: “The claims regarding potential harm to the crocodiles warrant examination and justify issuing an order prohibiting the transfer of the animals or the execution of any actions related to locating and preparing them for transfer.”

Neither the petition submitted by the animal rights organization nor the text of Judge Rubin’s ruling made reference to the condition or life-threatening conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners subjected to torture and sexual assault in facilities under Ben-Gvir’s authority.

Noting that the temporary injunction will remain in effect until further notice, the judge granted Silman, Ben-Gvir, and the Israeli Prison Service until Wednesday to submit their defense arguments.

Status of Nile crocodiles was altered

The Israeli government laid the legal groundwork for the project in July when Environmental Protection Minister Silman altered the conservation status of Nile crocodiles. Reclassified out of the protected wild animal category, the reptiles were reassigned to the classification of wild animals “raised in a controlled environment” or “held under management.”

This regulatory shift granted the Israeli Prison Service authority to keep crocodiles around prison perimeters, provided they comply with rules established by the Nature and Parks Authority. Prior to the modification, Nile crocodiles could only be housed in zoos. In its petition, Let the Animals Live also requested the revocation of this status change.

Ben-Gvir had proposed placing crocodiles in water channels encircling prisons under the pretext of preventing Palestinian detainees from escaping. The Israeli minister stated that in formulating his plan, he drew inspiration from an immigrant detention center in the US state of Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

In December, Minister Ben-Gvir published an AI-generated image on his social media account depicting himself holding a crocodile on a leash, accompanied by the caption: “Cursed terrorist, thinking of escaping? Think again.”

Israeli officials defended the proposal, contending that the crocodiles would enhance security measures and lower prison operational costs by reducing the requirement for patrolling personnel. The project was slated for implementation at the Ketziot Prison in the Negev Desert, where authorities had already initiated excavation work on a section of the moat.

9,600 Palestinians held in prisons

Since taking office in December 2022 as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, Ben-Gvir has signed off on measures that significantly harshened the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners. Ben-Gvir has also visited prisons and engaged in humiliating conduct toward detainees.

According to data from the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, approximately 9,600 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons. Thousands of these individuals are detained under “administrative detention” without formal charges or trial.

The commission recorded that 89 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since the onset of attacks on Gaza in 2023. The fate of dozens of individuals detained from Gaza remains unknown.

In 2024, a Palestinian prisoner was gang-raped by five soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention center, one of the facilities where Palestinians are held. After footage of the incident surfaced, Jewish settlers attempting to support the detained soldiers stormed the facility. Earlier this year, a court dropped the charges against the soldiers.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has documented that prison guards, soldiers, and Shin Bet officers have subjected Palestinian detainees to rape, forced insertion of objects into the anus, beatings to the genitals, starvation, electric shocks, and the withholding of medical treatment.

Middle East

Iran to receive hundreds of Chinese shoulder-fired missiles within weeks, sources say

Published

2 weeks ago

29/07/2026

Harici.com.tr

Iran is expected to receive its first shipment of 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air defense missile systems within weeks as it seeks to rebuild its air defenses amid an ongoing war with the US.

Three sources with knowledge of the agreement disclosed the information to Reuters.

Valued at between $60 million and $70 million, the purchase represents one of Tehran’s largest known efforts to bolster its short-range air defense capabilities since the outbreak of hostilities with the US and Israel.

According to the sources, the contract covers between 300 and 400 man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, including Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 missiles.

The deal was signed with Hong Kong-based Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, which reportedly acted as an intermediary between the Iranian side and the Chinese supplier.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet responded to a request for comment from Reuters regarding the information provided by the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following statement:

“The relevant reports are completely baseless. China has consistently played a role in promoting peace and bringing an end to the conflict.”

Beijing-based Zhong Qing Bao Shang Group, the parent company of Zhongqing Baoshang International Investment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Tuesday.

Iran needs to rearm following months of conflict during which the US and Israel struck facilities tied to its missile, drone, and air defense programs. Tehran responded to those attacks with salvos of ballistic missiles and drones.

The fighting demonstrated the difficulty of defending static military and strategic installations against advanced fighter jets and precision-guided munitions.

Washington abruptly halted its two-week bombing campaign on Saturday. However, US President Donald Trump said attacks would resume if negotiations aimed at ending the five-month war—which has theoretically been under a ceasefire since April—fail.

The delivery of hundreds of MANPADS systems would significantly expand Iran’s inventory of short-range air defense weapons.

However, the sources cautioned that while the agreement has been signed, the delivery schedule, quantities, and other operational details remain subject to change.

Under the plan agreed upon by the parties, initial deliveries will be transported by air from the western Chinese city of Urumqi before being routed through Pakistan to Iran. The sources did not clarify whether transport following the transit through Pakistan would occur by air or land.

The Pakistani military’s public relations wing, ISPR, said in a statement:

“Allegations that Pakistan is playing a role in the supply of air defense weapons from China to Iran are completely fabricated and contrary to fact.”

Two Western intelligence sources and an Iranian official said Tehran is also exploring the option of using overland routes to transport Chinese-made military equipment and dual-use components more covertly, reducing the risk of shipments being intercepted.

The procurement process underscores how the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to rely on a combination of domestic arms production and foreign suppliers, despite years of sanctions and defense import restrictions.

Reuters previously reported, citing individuals familiar with the discussions, that Iran was close to concluding a separate deal to purchase anti-ship cruise missiles from China. Reuters was unable to confirm whether that agreement was finalized.