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
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