Israeli and American efforts to degrade the military, nuclear, and oppressive capabilities of the regime demonstrate solidarity with the nation’s women.
S ince the Iranian regime took power in 1979, it has relegated women to the status of second-class citizens. They face state-backed discrimination in law and rigid enforcement from the government’s morality police. Domestic violence, marital rape, and early and forced marriage remain legal. And many of the women who have spoken out against this treatment have been sent to prison, where many have been brutally raped and tortured.
But if you believe a writer in The Nation, by confronting the regime responsible for these crimes, Israel is only making things worse. In “Iranian Women Don’t Need Saving,” Duaa e Zahra Shah claims that, while Israelis and Americans say their military operations benefit Iranian women, Iranian feminists believe the strikes set back the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Yet counterfactual narratives muddle the argument, and the Iranian feminists she designates to speak for the movement seem more intent on pushing their own agenda than on supporting the women of Iran.
Even the title is misleading. No one would assume the women who courageously rose up to protest the Iranian regime after a young girl was beaten to death by morality police for a bit of hair showing from under her hijab are damsels in distress. No, the women who took part in the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement starting in 2022 don’t need saving. They needed reinforcements. American and Israeli strikes provided precisely this by weakening the regime and damaging the tools of its repression.
Shah argues Israeli attacks have killed “hundreds” and “left widespread destruction and economic hardship.” If by killing, she is referring to Israeli’s elimination of Iran’s military leadership through precision strikes, and by “widespread destruction,” she is referring to the significant denegation of the regimes military capabilities and nuclear facilities, then Shah would be somewhat correct. However, given that Shah includes the flippant question from Leila Dehghan-Zaklaki, a nutritionist and social justice activist — “How are they going to free Iranian women? By bombing and killing them?” — it is safe to assume she is referring to neither.
Shah and her sources would do well to review the facts of what occurred during the Israeli and American strikes — Israel’s second wave of strikes during Operations Rising Lion in particular. These were focused primarily on sites central to internal repression. Several of the sites targeted played a direct role in the suppression of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement and the ongoing oppression of the Iranian people.
For example: Israeli strikes hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Thar-Allah Headquarters. Thar-Allah is responsible for addressing domestic threats to the Islamic Republic with units trained to quell urban crowds — including the most recent “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. The U.S. sanctioned Hossein Nejat, deputy commander of Thar-Allah, for his role in violently oppressing the 2022 wave of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Strikes also hit Basij Resistance Force headquarters. This HQ housed a paramilitary force responsible for suppressing protest movements — once again, including the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.
The one Israeli strike Shah mentions by name is the strike on Evin Prison. Yet she cites little reliable information about the strike. It’s impossible to understand the true significance of this strike without knowing that Evin Prison holds political prisoners and has been a tool of the regime’s repression. It regularly holds executions and tortures inmates there. Operating with precision, Israel targeted the facility’s gate and two courtrooms, avoiding harm to political prisoners while delivering them a message of solidarity. These few examples of Israeli precision strikes demonstrate that their goal was neither “bombing and killing” the Iranian people nor sweeping in and saving them. Rather, these strikes demonstrated a solidarity with the Iranian people in their fight against the regime that threatens them.
The voices Shah cites, moreover, may not be representative of the Iranian feminist movement. They instead represent a specific cadre dedicated to promoting its own agenda. One woman quoted is an Iranian-Palestinian researcher who likens foreign intervention to being “pro-imperialist.” The limited Israeli and American strikes can hardly be considered neo-colonialism. The speaker actually appears to be referring to the Israel-Hamas conflict while attempting to cast Israel in a negative light.
Another voice is the founder of a reproductive rights and justice organization who says that “no imperialist or authoritarian power” can deprive the Iranian people of their resilience. The “Iranian feminists” Shah cites are less concerned about the strikes themselves than they are about opposing Israel.
Shah attempts to invoke a larger “antiwar” framework. But such rhetoric often falls short for the fiercest Iranian women. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist whom the Iranian regime has tried to assassinate and kidnap on multiple occasions, has said of those spouting this line: “You’re not anti-war, you’re anti-Iranian people. Because the people of Iran are fighting this regime with empty hands and full hearts, risking everything for a future free of tyranny.”
Alinejad tells a different story. By her account, women and families danced in the streets at the news of the elimination of commanders who killed their loved ones. Others have written of Iranian people thanking the Israelis for their role and the possibility of an alliance between Tehran and Tel Aviv. That the Iranian regime has responded to attacks against it by doubling down on brutalizing its people, especially its women, proves the evil not of Israel but of that regime. To believe otherwise is to take for granted the regime’s hostage-taking of its own people.
It is true that the women of Iran don’t need saving. They have shown in the face of grave peril that they are strong and resilient. Yet Israeli and American efforts to degrade the military, nuclear, and oppressive capabilities of Iranian regime demonstrate solidarity with the nation’s oppressed women. Attempts to portray them differently have little to do with the supporting Iranian women and far more to do with pushing anti-Israeli and American narratives.