“Women! Life! Freedom!” One Year On
Dear Friends,
THIS WEEK MARKS the anniversary of the tragic death of a young woman at the hands of a truly brutal regime. It also marks the first year of the promising movement to not only protest that act of brutality and cowardice 𑁋 which brutality is 𑁋 not only turn the shock of that death to a permanent, constructive change, but once more to cry out in the name of all humanity, “this is not who we are.”
Will the cry be heard? That depends on where the courageous protesters go from here, and only secondarily if the watching world can support them. There are encouraging signs. Unlike so many spontaneous protests that react against an abuse but either dissipate once feelings have been vented or end up replacing one regime with another of the same susceptibility to abuse, the Women! Life! Freedom! Movement has the potential to be revolutionary in this deeper, more positive sense. The signs are 1) that the women, despite the severity of their repression, are remaining nonviolent, and 2) that they have given rise to a constructive alternative: the “Mahsa Charter,” or Charter of Solidarity and Alliance for Freedom, an inspiring document that lays out the elements of a free and democratic Iran. In other words, the movement is taking the step from reaction to being creative and proactive, toward what Gandhi would call “constructive program.”
The first is rare enough, the second rarer; both are essential. I rarely agree with the adage that someone’s death “was not in vain.” All this could have been achieved without brutality, without an untimely death. But there is no question that the people of Iran, and all of us, can use this tragic anniversary to recommit ourselves to real human progress: our progress in humanity.
~Michael Nagler
PS: I will be presenting at the Women! Life! Freedom! Conference at the University of Pennsylvania from September 29-30, 2023.
