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Source: https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/12/the-bravery-of-irans-women-puts-woke-westerners-to-shame/
The Courage of Iran's Women
(spiked-UK) Joanna Williams - It is impossible to overstate the bravery of Iran's protesters. Men and women, united in opposition to the dictatorship, have taken to the streets in defiance of the threat to their lives. "I am not afraid," one female protester is filmed saying. "I've been dead for 47 years." Her arm is raised in defiance, as blood drips from her mouth. Robina Aminian, 23, from a Kurdish region in Iran, was shot last week at close range in the back of her head by Iranian security forces and then buried by the side of the road. Today, her vibrant, smiling face shines from the front covers of British newspapers. Yet not even this has been enough to nudge privileged Western activists to so much as summon up a hashtag in solidarity with Iran's women. Instead, those quick to don a keffiyeh for the supposedly "right" cause have determinedly looked the other way. Mass displays of solidarity from the West's activist class have been notable only by their absence. Celebrities queued up to sign petitions, pen open letters, make TikToks and join protests critical of Israel's actions in Gaza. Students established protest camps on posh university lawns and hundreds of thousands of people marched through Britain's city centers week after week, purportedly in solidarity with Palestinians. But when it comes to supporting Iranian women? Silence. The silence of the Western virtue-signalers reminds us that not all women are equal. Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 revealed that Jewish women do not count. Jewish rape victims are to be forever doubted. Now we know that Iranian women do not count either. To date, the iconic image to emerge from the Iranian protests is of a beautiful young woman, hair loose about her shoulders, lighting a cigarette from a burning image of the ayatollah. That is freedom.