womenrights

What’s going on in Iran?

A protest spreading all over the world

What’s going on in Iran is appalling and cannot go unnoticed. It’s about women, and it’s about human rights. And so, we cannot turn our heads.

In early September, the morality police arrested Masha Amini, a 22 years old Kurdish girl. Why? Because she didn’t wear her hijab properly. Just reading this news feels insane and gut-wrenching!
Led to a re-education camp, she had a cardiac arrest and fell into a coma. Three days later, she died.

Witnesses said Misha Amini was brutally beaten by the authorities. As a consequence of this horrible death, Iranian people started big riots on the streets. Also calling for the fall of the regime – the Islamic Republic – a dictatorship that has subjugated people for decades.

In Iran, there’s no freedom of expression or association. Women, LGBTQ people and minorities are discriminated against and abused. And women are forced to wear a hijab from the age of nine.
Indeed religion is the tool in the hands of the dictatorship to suppress freedom and control people.

Iran protests
Marco Melgrati Illustration

Despite the regime’s atrocity, to protests over Mahsa Amini’s death, women in Iran started cutting off their hair. Soon the protests spread everywhere. In fact, in solidarity with Iranians, women around the world have cut or shaved their hair in public.
Also, Iran’s national team wore plain black jackets over their uniforms in Qatar.

Protesting in democratic countries plays a role as an expression of democracy. But rioting where people risk the death penalty really means having guts.

Therefore, what happens in Iran is something we need to share and discuss in order to spread awareness and solidarity.

Even though we cannot add new pieces of information, we cannot stay silent. And what really counts is that we all can contribute to giving voice to the Iranians.

What’s going on in Iran? Read More »

Are women free to make decisions?

Apparent freedom and women playing men’s game

We have recently touched on the connection between fashion and patriarchy to demonstrate that women aren’t really free to make decisions for themselves.

Is it real freedom?

If, in the Arabic world, freedom is a male prerogative, what happens in the western world is not much different. Women believe they are free, but their image reflects a male perspective. There’s a filter in women’s brains, a male setting made of centuries of cultural domination.

Look at what happened in the U.S., where some older men just passed an abortion ban, sending the country backwards and triggering big debates worldwide.

The joke is that perhaps Americans went to Afghanistan to train with the Taliban. But when the sad laugh ends, the concern grows. Indeed, you can see that patriarchy is still very much alive.

Being a female-led company, we suffer every time we hear women saying: “I cannot buy this dress because my husband doesn’t like it.” Of course, it’s not about the dress itself but because we are the only ones who can decide if we like something or not. We cannot allow someone else to rule us, knowing that someone else is often a man.

Likewise, women are the only ones who must have a voice in any matter that involves our bodies.

Are women free?

Being a woman isn’t a free choice. The vision of a woman is a male representation because those who hold the power and who make the rules are men. And so, they impose beauty standards, the clothing we should wear, and dictate our rights too. Even whether women can study or have an abortion is up to their whim.

If we allow men to decide what we can wear and how we should look, we give them the power to take any decision that involves us.

The story is about men who want to control women and women who play the men’s game, facilitating it!

Wake up, women! It’s time to remove patriarchal layers and choose what we want for ourselves.

Are women free to make decisions? Read More »