Iranian journalist Nazila Fathi left Siena College students and area residents with one main message—in order to change a society, look to the women.
Fathi’s talk on Iran’s political future came a day after International Women’s Day, this year falling on Sunday, March 8. Organized by Women Against War, Fathi spoke at the college on the misconceptions about Iranian culture that led her to pen her memoir “The Lonely War.” Much of her talk, however, centered around the lasting effects the 1979 Revolution in Iran had on the country’s women.
With the bloodshed after the revolution, Iranians became weary of instability and “institutional breakdown,” according to Fathi.
One of the largest misconceptions Fathi said she has encountered is the assumption that Iranians want to become martyrs for a cause. She said speaking to anyone in political work, no one ever told her they were willing to die for change.
With a colleague, Fathi said that she had interviewed a student leader during the 1999 protests, and asked him if he was willing to become a martyr for democracy.
“The student leader was completely shocked. He looked at her for a few second, and then he said, ‘No. I want freedom for me. I want to have a better life. I don’t want to die.’ When we walked out, my colleague said she was very disappointed in the student movement,” Fathi said.
Fathi was a young child when the 1979 Revolution occurred that helped establish the Islamic Republic. She said that those who didn’t remember the revolution heard about its bloodshed and effects from parents.
“We fought for political freedom, but after the Revolution, we lost personal liberties,” Fathi said. The rise of Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini, while strongly supported throughout the revolution, brought restrictions to the community with the rise of the Republic.
“I remember the loss of personal freedom, even as a 9-year-old girl,” said Fathi. She spoke about the pool in her housing complex, which had been the center of the community. “It was everything to us. But then, after the revolution, girls after the age of 9 were banned from swimming in that pool, and me and other girls my age, we had to wear a headscarf, put on a thick, uncomfortable nylon coat and watch the boys swim in the water. Women had become the walking symbols of the Islamic regime.
Fathi recalled the women who came to her elementary school, “morality teachers,” who devoutly followed Khomeini. The women removed mirrors from the bathrooms, warned against vanity and attempted to ban all music except traditional Iranian music.
But, she said, when she was in high school, the morality teachers changed. She said they began to wear braces and contacts instead of glasses. “They wanted to beautify themselves, and this was exactly what they warned us against,” Fathi said.
After some time, the women themselves began experiencing the discrimination of Islamic law. If a husband died in the war, the paternal grandfather could claim custody of the children. Husbands returning from war could divorce their wives and take custody of the children. Women didn’t have the same rights of divorce or opinion.
“These women started asking for exactly the same thing that secular women had been asking all along. The secular women, who these women had tried to marginalize and separate all along,” said Fathi.
When protests came in 2009, Fathi was the only full-time journalist for the New York Times reporting on the Iranian Green Movement. She was later forced to flee to Canada upon receiving threats from the Iranian government. However, Fathi said colleagues told stories of women in Iran protecting men from “vigilante forces” that supported the Republic, because women were rarely met with violence.
“Women, half of the population, are extremely angry, and they’re frustrated. And nothing has changed for them. The regime has remained extremely repressive and hasn’t given into any kind of compromise. [The public] sent out a loud and clear message. The regime did not respond to that message, but I think the regime did hear, very loud and clear, and that’s why in the 2013 elections, it allowed the vote of the people to be counted,” said Fathi.
After the violence of the 1979 Revolution, many Iranians want to avoid another revolution. The assumption that Iranians want to follow in Egypt’s footsteps is wrong. Fathi said this is another reason behind her memoir.
Speaking to neighbors and the public, Fathi said many people want a slow change to avoid instability. The public is aware the Islamic Republic is not going away, but want more basic human rights.
“If you want to change a society, change the women, because they raise the next generation. When women are educated, they tend to raise more moderate ideas,” said Fathi.
