Gola did not mean to predict the eruption of her native country into protests, violence and death when she sang “Haghameh” (“It’s my right”) a few months before the brutal killing of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini
Author: Parisa Saranj
Parisa Saranj is a translator and writer based in Baltimore. Her literary translations and writing have appeared in several publications, including Nimrod International Journal, Your Impossible Voice, Consequence, Five Minutes Lit and the 2021 anthology Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora.
In Iran, the Resistance Continues
Earlier this month, a few major news outlets erroneously reported that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran had abolished the morality police—the infamous government body in Iran designed to harass and control women for such crimes as wearing an improper hijab or walking in public with a male friend. But it seems the news of its death has been greatly exaggerated.
The eyes of the world are on Iran. That’s why it’s crucial, Dr. Yalda Hamidi, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at Minnesota State University, warned, not to “pay attention to what a single Iranian politician does” but “what people are doing and reporting, despite internet shutdowns and censorship.”
The Eyes of the World Are on Iran
He is in Tehran. I am in Baltimore. The separation is unbearable. Right now, I don’t even want an answer. I want a sign that means he’s alive, that he’s not dead, that the internet has been restored, that he hasn’t been arrested or beaten.
The death of the 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the “morality police” hasn’t just sparked spontaneous protests—it’s countrywide. Women are removing their headscarves and burning them because they are tired of being told what to do with their bodies. Men cheer them on, and some block the fists and batons crashing down on their sisters.