The courage of Iran’s citizens and physicians fills me with awe as a doctor and woman. It is hard to explain the extent of courage, resilience, and hope, that are expressed in the face of challenges and sorrows, in front of loved ones, in hospitals, and now in public squares in Tehran.
On the 3rd of February, the women of Khatam-ol-Anbia — the martyrs of this civil war — were commemorated in the streets of Tehran. In front of the Khatam-ol-Anbia cemetery, women from the city and from all generations stood up to face the camera and sang. They sang in unison, their voices joined by the sound of the “Mojabi”. This was the sound of the women and children of Khatam-ol-Anbia who sang as they faced the bullets of the enemy.
This song was brought down to us by the courageous women of Khatam-ol-Anbia. We did not only see their faces, we saw the courage that is in their hearts. We also heard their voices. The spirit of the women of Khatam-ol-Anbia that was revealed in their song.
On 13 January, a group of women’s activists were arrested, accused of trying to topple the Islamic Republic and were put in prison. The head of the Revolutionary Guards’ media department, Brigadier-General Ali-Reza Bahrami, came to call on them. The women’s group said that the charges against them were unfounded. “We have proof that this was an attempt to undermine the Islamic Republic from within,” they were told.
They were taken to jail and held for twenty days, then transferred and put in a different prison on the outskirts of the capital. According to the Revolutionary Guards’ media department, they have been in prison for six days and have not yet been notified that they would be released.
Iran’s judiciary, which is under the control of the Revolutionary Guards, is now investigating the activities of the women’s group. They claim that the women are “politically-motivated and their work was against Islam” and they are carrying out “terrorist activities”. There is no evidence for this allegation.
The women who brought up the song that the Iranian women sang the day the Khomeinist Revolution took over our country were right to bring it to our country.
The courage of the people of
