Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Feminine of Iran


The Iranian clerics know that women pose a profound threat to their authority: As activist Ladan Boroumand has written, the regime would not bother to use brutal forms of repression against dissidents unless it feared them deeply. Nobody would have murdered a young woman in blue jeans—a peaceful, unarmed demonstrator—unless her mere presence on the street presented a dire threat.

2 comments:

Arelcao Akleos said...

I have no doubt that the Clerics of Qom, as represented by Khameini, or Khomeini before him, are prepared to kill as many young women, or old women, or young men, or old men, or little children in their cribs, as necessary, for the survival of their regime and the triumph of their ideology.
But, hey, what's not to dialogue about?

My Frontier Thesis said...

Applebaum could've made a bit stronger argument if she would've included the following: "Even if the sniper was or was not directly connected with the Iranian government, her death represents the misogyny, hostility and submission the Ayatollah and Islam is capable of projecting toward women." But that's my only critique of this particular piece by Applebaum. Good article for sure.