Asieh Amini - Women Warriors
Asieh Amini: Journalist, Activist, Poet
Asieh Amini is an Iranian journalist, activist and poet. As a six-year-old girl, she witnessed the Iranian revolution in 1979 and resented having to wear the newly-mandatory black hijab, to the point that it made her cry (Anderson 232). She began attending college in 1993 for journalism and wrote for Kayhan (the daily paper) (Anderson 232). She advanced to writing for a larger newspaper, Iran, and then became its' cultural editor very quickly, according to Anderson. This promotion did not come without some complaints from the male staff, who resented her place of authority (Anderson 232).
For a while, Amini worked for a women's issues paper, and then did freelance journalism (Anderson 232). After hearing about the execution of a 16-year-old girl in 2006, Amini was horrified (Anderson 232). Atefeh Sahaaleh had been repeatedly assaulted and bribed to keep quiet (cosmolearning.org). The morality police eventually found and arrested Sahaaleh for not maintaining her "chastity" (cosmolearning.org). Her repeat "offenses" were punished with lashings and eventually execution (cosmolearning.org). This case was difficult to read about, to say the very least. The judge looked at her body and decided that she must be in her twenties, no matter what she said or what proof she provided (cosmolearning.org). She cited a difficult childhood and mental health issues, which were ignored by the court (iranrights.org). Sahaaleh had been initially reported by her own grandfather, despite being his caretaker (iranrights.org). She asked for forgiveness with her last words, when she had been the one wronged and abused at every turn (iranrights.org).
"When I met with the family, they showed me a copy of her birth certificate, and a copy of her death certificate. Both of them show she was born in 1988. This gave me legitimate grounds to investigate the case." - Asieh Amini
(Quote source: cosmolearning.org)
Once Amini had uncovered a pattern of such murders, she tried to find a place to publish these findings, with much difficulty. Her boss fired her for going against the Islamic state, and other papers wanted nothing to do with it (Anderson 232). However, a women's journal eventually agreed to publish her story, according to Anderson.
Amini discovered another young woman who was being sexually exploited and prosecuted by the Islamic state - Leyla. Leyla's case gained international attention which eventually gained her freedom (Anderson 232). Amini's journey of advocating for children accidentally uncovered more evil - stonings were still continuing despite technically being illegal (Anderson 233). So Amini created a campaign to prove that stonings were still happening and to put an end to them by raising public awareness -
- "Stop Stoning Forever."
Her collaborations with Amnesty International as well as protests drew much attention, including some undesired attention from her own government (Anderson 233). In 2009, she was warned to leave before her untimely disappearance, and so she fled the country to settle in Norway (litteraturhusetitrondheim.no). She has since published two books of poetry, pursued a degree in Equality and Diversity, and received several awards for her human rights advocacy.
...Some Thoughts...
During my research, I found that girls in Iran (at least at the time) could be prosecuted as young as nine, and that boys could be prosecuted at fifteen (womenshistory.org). I don't know why there is such an age disparity between the sexes - whether it's for sexism or some other reason. Many judges act on their own consciences when sentencing people, which leads to extremely harsh sentences from those who only obey the sharia law (over that of their own government, which often covers for them and pretends that any abuses of power don't exist). A man's word always means more than a woman's in these courts - "she was asking for it," "she gave me a look and led me astray," are common excuses made by men who need to be seen as strong and superior and who yet act like helpless slaves to their own lust (cosmolearning.org). Everything about this is insane to me. Sexual assault is tragically common, and yet not all instances involve murder. Some men are simply exploiting their legal system to violate and then discard women. Asieh's findings make that clear. Her efforts to raise awareness are a step in the right direction - to rouse the sane people of Iran to act against such evil on the part of their own government. And today, many protesters are.
Sources:
1. Feminism in Iran: A Conversation with Asieh Amini - House of Literature in Trondheim (litteraturhusetitrondheim.no) (Also, the source of image #1).
2. The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson
3. Asieh Amini | National Women's History Museum (womenshistory.org) (Also, the source of image #2).
4. Execution in Iran - Hanging of Atefeh Sahaaleh (2006) | CosmoLearning History
5. Abdorrahman Boroumand Center :: Atefeh Sahaleh Rajabi: One Person’s Story (iranrights.org)
It is incredibly difficult to read about both Atefeh and Leyla's stories. It is heartbreaking to know that they are far from the only ones, but I commend Asieh Amini for fighting for them despite the dangers that that fight came with. I thought it very interesting to learn that Asieh's findings were not published until picked up by a women's journal. It seems we are constantly having to look out and fight for each other. Thank you for sharing Asieh and her extremely important work!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great and empowering story, Amini overcame growing up in a difficult part of the world. It's terrible the things she brought public attention to and with heavy backlash from the Islamic state. Amini is a true hero for not backing down and shedding light on the horrors around the world happening to women.
ReplyDeleteThis story is extremely powerful and moving, due to the face that Asieh Amini could relate to the several women she chose to advocate for, which resulted in cruel, immoral punishment. It is still insane that this country still practices the Sharia law--which still favors male rights over women rights. Amini shows true heroism throughout her advocacy, however it is a shame that she was kind of shunned out of her own country because she wanted to spread awareness to the horrible things that were happening.
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