The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
8 — Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Iranian Women’s Long-Standing Fight Against State Brutality

In recent weeks, Iranians have 
taken to the streets in large num-
bers to protest the death of Jina 
(Mahsa) Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian 
woman who died at the hands of 
Iran’s morality police. Protestors 
are honoring the lives lost to state 
brutality forces and challenging 
socio-political systems that enable 
the violent enforcement of laws 
that no longer serve the interests 
of Iranian citizens. Iranian police 
forces have responded violently to 
Iranian women on the front line of 
protests who are chanting: “Zan. 
Zindigi. Azadi” — the Farsi version 
of a Kurdish motto that translates 
to “Women, Life, Freedom.” For 
the last month, their protests have 
been met with physical brutal-
ity, mass imprisonment and unjust 
surveillance that suppress their 
revolutionary efforts. Despite the 
ever-present threat of imprison-
ment and violence at the hands of 
the state, Iranians are continu-
ing to protest. Workers are strik-
ing, children aren’t showing up 
for school and women across the 
nation are relentlessly chanting 

“Zan. Zindigi. Azadi” — knowing 
that those may be the last words 
they ever utter. 
Zan. Zindigi. Azadi.
Iranian 
women 
have 
been 
denied these seemingly simple 
demands for life and freedom for 
nearly a century. The desire to live 
freely and uphold bodily autonomy 
has persisted across generations 
of Iranian women who have lived 
under various socio-political sys-
tems that enforce violent control 
on their citizens. In the past 70 
years, Iranians have been con-
trolled by several regimes that 
have utilized state-sanctioned vio-
lence to monopolize every aspect 
of their citizens’ lives. Through 
American 
intervention 
efforts, 
the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty 
and the current rule of the Islamic 
Republic, a century of Iranians 
have experienced regime after 
regime of state brutality promising 
to somehow correct the state bru-
tality that preceded it.
The American role in the current 
state of Iranian affairs dates back 
to 1953, when a CIA coup over-
threw Iran’s democratically elect-
ed leader, Mohammed Mosaddegh. 
This coup was part of an American 
effort to reinstate the monarchy in 

Iran; by seating Shah Reza Pahlavi 
on the throne, Iranians fell under 
the rule of a U.S.-backed royal dic-
tatorship. Under the influence of 
American puppeteers, the Pahlavis 
measured success through a west-
ern lens, putting great emphasis on 
urbanizing the nation. Urbaniza-
tion efforts were hailed as signs of 
progress and economic recovery, 
but the failures of these efforts 
were transparent. Under the Shah, 
a large portion of Iranians liv-
ing in rural areas lacked access to 
education and health care. This 
was a consequence of the Shah’s 
repression of rural lifestyles that 
accompanied his censure of many 
traditional aspects of Iranian cul-
ture. In an effort to suppress oppo-
sition to modernization efforts, 
traditional symbols of Islam were 
criminalized — particularly hijab. 
Kashfe Hijab was the movement 
to ban women in Iran from being 
veiled, and it encompassed the 
broader efforts of the Shah to 
control women under the guise 
of liberating them. It is clear that 
Iranian women have long been 
familiar with the administration 
of oppressive forces dictating their 
right to choose. 
After a long period of civil 

unrest under the Pahlavi dynasty, 
Iranians began to revolt. Critics 
of the Pahlavi regime — including 
veiled women, inhabitants of rural 
Iran, Shiite Iranians and Marx-
ist groups like Iran’s Tudeh Party 
— sought to conquer the oppres-
sive rule of the Pahlavi dynasty, 
and its unwavering allegiance to 
the West. Unsurprisingly, protes-
tors were met with brutal forces 
that imprisoned revolutionaries, 
restricted efforts for liberation 
and committed violence against 
civilians — all repressive tactics 
that have been maintained by the 
current regime. 
Despite efforts to suppress 
opposition, insurgence under the 
Shah continued to increase. This 
was made possible by the mass 
mobilization of Shiite Iranians, 
inspired by the work of Ayatol-
lah Khomeini. Khomeini, who 
had been exiled by the Pahla-
vis, became the catalyst for the 
Islamic revolution upon his return 
to the country in 1979. After the 
Shah was overthrown, he became 
the supreme leader of the newly 
founded Islamic Republic. 
Khomeini’s 
victory 
restored 
hope for many Iranians — who 
viewed the Islamic revolution as 

a means for liberation — while 
prompting many others to flee the 
country. Alas, it wasn’t long before 
the promises made to the 1979 
revolutionaries were broken. The 
Shah’s implementation of state 
brutality was quickly reconstruct-
ed to serve the Islamic Republic’s 
vision for the homogenization of 
Iran. In either direction of homog-
enization, women have been dis-
proportionately 
scrutinized 
and 
subjected to violent law enforcement. 
The fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty 
only momentarily silenced cries 
for liberation. Iranians quickly 
became governed by authoritarian 
forces under a new guise. In many 
ways, the Islamic Republic estab-
lished a socio-political system that 
would mimic the Shah’s efforts 
to homogenize the nation, while 
directly opposing the Shah’s vision 
for homogenization. This is epito-
mized by the republic’s hijab man-
date, which prompted people to 
assemble in protest, chanting the 
slogan: “In the dawn of freedom 
there is an absence of freedom.” 
These women, advocating for the 
right to choose, were echoing the 
same cries of veiled women living 
under the Pahlavi dynasty’s 1936 
Kashfe Hijab mandate. The newly 

formed republic began to target 
the autonomy of Iranian women in 
a new, but familiar, way. 
Unsurprisingly, Iranians cur-
rently protesting the death of Jina 
Amini are being met with the 
same violent forces that killed her. 
Protestors are being subjected to 
heavy surveillance, police violence 
and unfair imprisonment. Current 
and past political protestors are 
being held in Evin Prison, which 
was founded toward the end of the 
Pahlavi era and maintained under 
the Islamic Republic. As the goals 
of each government seemingly 
changed, Evin Prison serves as a 
tangible symbol for the longstand-
ing and remaining state brutality and 
tyrannical justice system that has 
been present since the Pahlavi era. 
The Shah set the precedent 
for using Evin Prison to unjustly 
imprison political prisoners and 
subject them to torturous, inhu-
mane living conditions. Ironically, 
Evin Prison became occupied by 
those who were involved with the 
Pahlavi regime after 1979, but the 
prison population soon broadened 
to include anyone opposing the 
Islamic Republic. 

MARYAM KHORASSANI
MiC Columnist

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Design by Melia Kenny

My Brown Heroes: 
Part I

Modern 
Indian 
American 
mythology consists of recur-
ring epics. The daring quests 
for the coveted M.D. The hero-
ines who got admitted to Har-
vard. Tales of valiant engineers 
and fearsome physicians (Just 
like my Amma, this article has 
already brought up being a doc-
tor too much). Growing up, I was 
regaled with these tales of Indi-
an excellence. However, there 
are many lost scripts — stories 
that remained untold, scratched 
from the official tablet. 
Why aren’t they shared? My 
hypothesis: 
they 
don’t 
feed 
into the reverence of unfalter-
ing perfection, safe decisions, 
money and status. Because they 
don’t support parents being 
munnari deivam, your “first 
god.” Because they don’t involve 
a “risqué” change from engi-
neer to doctor — they are about 
switching from Zoloft to Lexa-
pro. They’re embodiments of 
subjects that are more comfort-
able left unsaid.
That’s where my cousin’s tale 
comes in — to fill in these gaps. 
Suja Akka has a tall, com-
manding presence. Her hugs 
make it feel like the world can’t 
touch you.
At 16, Suja Akka was diag-
nosed with depression. She says 
if her older self had been pres-
ent, she would have recognized 
the signs years prior. But it was 
the quintessential motif: igno-
rant parents who are unable to 
understand how to deal with 
mental illness. Mental health 
falls under many labels in our 
family: a sickness, an excuse, a 

weakness. Therefore, her battles 
were shrouded in silence — a 
shameful secret. 
At the same time, her par-
ents were divorcing. Divorce 
during the ’90s was unheard of 
in our Indian community (and, 
to a point, still is). Her parents’ 
divorce was the first in our 
extended U.S. family — anoth-
er challenge met with silence 
in our community. Another 
taboo topic that Akka had to 
cope with alone. As the divorce 
unfolded, her parents grew 
neglectful. Parents who used to 
ban her from dates and home-
coming suddenly didn’t care 
what she did. They didn’t know 
which colleges she had applied 
to or how she was doing in life. 
To make matters worse, her 
amma channeled her own anger 
towards Akka, tormenting her at 
home, castigating and demean-
ing her. She would find any lit-
tle reason to unleash her anger 
on Akka, especially when she 
had the gall to show an ounce 
of personality. When Suja Akka 
finally started standing up for 
herself against these unwar-
ranted attacks and yelling back, 
her Amma gave her uncles and 
grandparents 
an 
ultimatum: 
stop talking to Suja or stop talk-
ing to me. Did they defend the 
girl going through unimagina-
ble battles? No. Suja Akka was 
unceremoniously thrown out of 
her grandparents’ house where 
she had lived. A friend had to 
pick her up from the curb. She 
was no longer invited to family 
gatherings. There would be no 
Thanksgivings, no Christmases, 
no phone calls or check-ins for 
many years to come.

KUVIN SATYADEV
MiC Columnist

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Molly Joyce and Musical Commentary on 
Disability in ‘Perspective,’

Released on Oct. 28 in celebra-
tion of Disability Employment 
Awareness Month, Perspective 
is Molly Joyce’s second studio 
album and the newest entry in 
her growing collection of activ-
ist thinkpieces. Across 12 tracks, 
each focused on a core element 
of disability or societal percep-
tion of disability, Joyce weaves 
together her minimalist-esque 
music compositional styles with 
interview clips and statements 
from a tremendously wide range 
of people, from performing art-
ists to academic activists. The 
spoken audio clips are engaging, 
personal and often emotional 
in nature due to the intimacy of 
disability conversations. Joyce 
pays specific attention to shar-
ing diverse viewpoints within 
the disability community and 
features many POC and LGBTQ+ 
perspectives. Thus far, it has 
received fairly positive criti-
cism, but her status as a mar-
ginalized composer has limited 
the exposure of her work. I’d 
like to tell you a bit more about 
her and the significance of this 
work both in terms of her activ-
ism and her trailblazing musical 
visions. In full transparency, I 
do not identify myself with the 
disabled community. With that 
in mind, I do not intend for this 
piece to speak to the disabled 
experience in any way; rather, I 
hope to shed light on the work 
that Joyce has done thus far, and 
hopefully convince you to expe-
rience her music.
Molly Joyce is a composer and 
performer. Much of her work is 
multimedia, making use of both 

audio and visual components. 
She is best known for play-
ing her vintage 1960s Magnus 
toy organ, which she uses as an 
instrumental reflection of dis-
ability in her work; according to 
Joyce, the organ “allows (her) 
to engage and seek the creative 
potential of disability.” She is a 
graduate of Juilliard, the Royal 
Conservatory in The Hague and 
the Yale School of Music. She 
has won numerous awards, col-
laborated with many significant 
contemporary music artists and 
has written for various academic 

publications as wwell as given a 
TedX presentation about persist-
ing in music after being impaired 
in an accident. 
Prior 
to 
Perspective, 
she 
released performances of her 
music on her 2017 EP Lean Back 
and Release and her 2020 debut 
album Breaking and Entering. 
She has also composed works for 
other performers and ensembles 
of various mediums.
I first learned about Joyce in 
a contemporary music course by 
Dr. Ryan Olivier that I took at 
Indiana University South Bend 

before I transferred to Michi-
gan. I was really interested in 
minimalist music at the time, 
so her postminimalist compo-
sitional style intrigued me; I 
found her works evocative and 
direct in messaging, yet some-
what open to artistic interpre-
tation. I had little exposure to 
contemporary women compos-
ers prior to the course, and had 
absolutely no reference for pos-
sible intersections between dis-
ability and music, so her work 

CEDRIC MCCOY
MiC Columnist

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

alcohol ink painting by teresa kovalak

Come see what we’ve made for you!

handmade

arts & crafts

by local artisans

juried market

Sundays 11am 
-4pm

April ‘til Christmas
Ann Arbor Farmers Market 
Pavilion, 315 Detroit St.

Facebook:
Sunday Artisan Market
Instagram: 
TheSundayArtisanMarket
WebsIte: 
SundayArtisanMarket.org

