While we celebrate International Women's Day on March 8, we must remember the many brave Iranian women who have endured decades of hardship under the harsh rules of Islam, imposed on them by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today, we are seeing the fruits of their struggles and suffering, praying that by the time you read this, the Islamic Republic will have fallen. But the job is not done, and their suffering has not ended.
Under Islamic rules, Iranian women have been subjugated and suppressed for more than 47 years since the satanic Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran. Iranian women lost all their rights after the revolution in 1979. The regime started suppressing women systematically and publicly through many misogynist laws, making women and women's rights only half of that of men. Women are forced to wear a hijab from the age of seven. Iranian women cannot sing or dance in public or have custody of their children after getting divorced. Women cannot travel or obtain a passport without the permission of their fathers or husbands. They cannot get government jobs or hold other important positions. The humiliation of women under the Islamic Republic runs deep in the regime's DNA.
Under Islamic rules, women are treated like property of men. Their testimony in court is half that of men because, under Islam, a woman's brain is considered half that of men. Women's inheritance is half of men's. However, under these same Islamic rules, girls as young as nine are mature enough to be married to old men because their prophet, Mohammed, married his wife, Aisha, at the age of seven.
Many Iranian girls and women have been murdered by their fathers, brothers, or husbands in what they call "honor killings," for which the men face no severe consequences because, under Islamic rules, there is no capital punishment against a male who kills their female relative for the purpose of their honor. One of my personal examples is most telling. After I talked to my brother about my conversion to Christianity, he talked to a mullah about his confusion between Islam and Christianity, and mentioned my conversion to Christianity. The mullah told my brother to kill me, and he promised him there would be no punishment for him under the law of "honor killing." There are countless other examples.
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Hundreds of thousands of Iranian women have been arrested in the streets, beaten up in public by "morality police," and humiliated only because of not having a proper Islamic hijab. One prominent example is Mahsa Amini, who was murdered in 2022 for allowing her hair to show. She was beaten mercilessly after her arrest, went into a coma, and died at the hands of her torturers.
The Islamic regime also deliberately disfigures the faces of many Iranian women by throwing acid at them or shooting them for disobeying the Islamic rules and not following the "proper" Islamic dress code. We have seen that abundantly during the recent protests across Iran.
Many Iranian women were raped in prison and were subject to sexual abuse by prison authorities. I personally witnessed this kind of abuse during my imprisonment at Evin prison in 2009, where I was sentenced to death by hanging just for being a Christian. One of my cellmates who got a job at the prison clinic found the real job was to go there every day and to give sexual pleasure to prison authorities and government officials. They threatened her that if she refused, they would kill her. I went through many psychological pressures and hardships to deny my faith in Jesus. I witnessed the execution of my best friend, Shirin Alamhooli, and many of my cellmates. I heard many stories of rape and sexual abuse from my cellmates who did not have any voices. I witnessed the torture and humiliation of women regularly.
One of the most obscene ways in which women are subjugated, there is a perversion under the Islamic rules it is not legitimate to execute a virgin. So, according to a fatwa (religious command) by Ayatollah Khomeini, virgins must be raped before their execution. Under the Islamic rules, raping virgins before their execution prevents them from entering heaven. This law is just an excuse and a reward to prison authorities for having sexual pleasure with innocent women before executing them. Under Islamic rules, women have zero value.
Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian-American who immigrated to the U.S. after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is the author of two books (the latest, "A Love Journey with God"), a public speaker, and a columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.
Marzi is also the founder and president of NEW PERSIA, whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians. www.NewPersia.org.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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