The Iranian regime’s hatred of women has claimed another life. Because 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was not wearing her headscarf tight enough, she was arrested by the Islamic Republic’s morality police and apparently beaten to death.
The oppression of women is an essential basis of the Islamic theocracy, and the headscarf is an important instrument of rule for the mullahs. The forced veil applies to all women, and the punishment is whipping and imprisonment. The female body is considered sinful. “Western” and “gay” haircuts are also forbidden for men.
Regarding the courageous fight of Iranian women against compulsory headscarves, the “taz” recently said that the protest actions of the Iranian-American women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, who is fighting the Islamist regime in her home country from exile, stand for “Western ideologies”. The compulsory headscarf was seriously mentioned in connection with nuns in Germany.
Such cultural relativists should remember the slogan chanted by Iranian women at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in protest at the veil requirement: “Freedom is neither Western nor Eastern, but universal!”
Instead of taking this slogan seriously, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and several of his predecessors dutifully congratulated the Iranian Islamists until a few years ago on the anniversary of this Islamic revolution, which led to the massive patronage and persecution of women that continues to this day. Even after Mahsa Amini’s death, courageous Iranians took to the streets again and protested against gender apartheid and the brutal actions of the moral police.
As Iran’s most important European trading partner, Germany would certainly be in a position to exert political pressure. The federal government is committed to a feminist foreign policy. A worthy goal. According to the Federal Foreign Office, it is about recognizing gender equality as a “prerequisite for sustainable peace and security in the world”.
Now it is time to put the concept into practice. Germany should unequivocally side with women and the democratic opposition in Iran instead of persisting in the failed appeasement policy. And the next time German politicians travel to Iran, they should refrain from wearing a headscarf to protest against the compulsory veil.
When, if not now.