ANKARA - Pointing out that the new generation is fearless, Iranian activist Mahtab Mahbub told that the slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadî”, the foundations of which was laid in Rojava, which the Rojava revolution was built on, came and blossemed in their own lands.

 

The protests, which started after Jîna Aminî was murdered by the "morality police" that later spreaded to every region of Iran, have entered the fourth week. Protests and strikes led by women and youth continue all over the country. In addition to teachers, students and workers from many professions, oil workers who play a critical role in the Iranian economy also participated in the protests. In many parts of Iran, slogans are shouted against Khamenei and a change in the regime is demanded by millions. In Iran, where approximately 200 people were murdered by the regime, the people continue their actions stronger, without backing down.

 

Iranian activist Mahtab Mahbub spoke to the Mesopotamia Agency (MA) about the ongoing uprising in Iran. Mahbub, who carries out her activities on refugees and women in Germany, said that she actively participated in the demonstrations in Iran in 2009 and then had to leave the country. Mahbub stated that the democratic negotiation area with the Iranian state has been completely blocked and that is why the violence against the protests has increased and said, “If we compare it with the 2009 protests, which took place mostly in big cities, the current protests are everywhere. The protests started with the murder of Jîna. There were a few things that had an effect on Jîna's murder. She was female, Kurdish, Sunni, had an accent, and was away from her home, she was in Tehran, the capital city. More importantly, she resisted the police and their insults. She couldn't bear the insults, and she responded to the police. She talked back. She did it as a woman and as a Kurd. As a result, they hit her in the head so many times that Jîna fell into a coma and later died.”

 

FEMINITY AND MASCULINITY REDIFINED IN IRAN

 

Expressing that Jîna was a simple citizen waiting for a bus before she was killed, and this is the situation that made people lose their patience, Mahbub said: "This situation was the last straw that made people lose their patience. As a woman in Iran, your body can be subjected to a so severe mechanism of oppression that you can end up dead. Women in Iran have been living with this anger for years and resisting against it for years. No one could have foreseen it. A slogan from a tiny Iranian city that was considered a slum, exploded in the Iranian capital, and spreaded across the country. Now everyone is shouting 'Jin, jiyan, azadi.' Who could have thought that defending a woman would actually be defending the men who were oppressed under this system? This is also written on Jîna's tomb. She became a symbol. It's like a secret codename used for freedom."

 

THE UNIFYING CHARACHTER OF THE PROTEST

 

According to Mahbub, who participated in many protests in Iran and took an active part in the political process, the fact that the ongoing protests started in Kurdistan and spreaded from there, revealed a unifying character of the peoples. Mahbub continued: “We don't tell them 'abolish the moral police' anymore. We say, 'We will not allow this to continue like this'. Is the moral police the right translation of what's happening? Where exactly does morality lie in committing femicide?"

 

NEW GENERATIN IS ALSO CALLING ON THE SOCIETY AS WELL

 

Mentioning that those who resist on the streets are generally the generation born after 2000 and that this generation is very different from the previous ones, Mahbub said: "They are incredibly brave. They are fearless, but unfortunately they have no hope. At their age, we were not so hopeless. These children have no hope. They have grown in this period where everyone has lost their hopes. They have no social freedoms. They have no economic expectations. They have a very central demand. This demand is not only against the government but also against the society. They are also calling on the society."

 

THE REGIME IN IRAN IS IN FREAR AND TREMBLING

 

When asked about the manipulations in the Iranian state media, Mahbub replied: "Believe me, I don't follow the Iranian state media at all. I don't even know a person who does. This actually tells a lot on its own. Everyone has satellites. Everyone follows social media. Because state televisions lie and all of Iran knows this. On the other hand, the new generation we just mentioned does not only use social media, they go to the page of the celebrities they follow and leave messages, tell what happened and tell them "Help our voices be heard". This is tremendous. Yes, maybe there is an internet outage right now, but there are still young people with cameras on the street. These young people are not afraid, they are not running away. This seems crazy to a woman who has resisted in Iran before. The brutality you see on the streets right now is and will be tenfold in prisons. It is one-tenth of the violence and savagery that has happened and will happen, because there are still cameras on the street. That's why the entire regime is in fear and thrembling. No one else listens to what they say from their own media."

 

THE RESISTANCE IN IRAN HAS ALREADY WON

 

Mahbub stated that she can already say that the resistance in Iran has won in these days, when the protests entered the fourth week, and said, "What is success in such a wave of rebellion where women are at the center of life and freedom? I think what has happened is success already." Emphasizing that masculinity is redefined through these actions and that new revolutionary subjects are born from this process, Mehbub said, "A slogan, “Jin, jiyan, azadî”, the foundations of which was laid in Rojava, which the Rojava revolution was built on, came and blossemed in their own lands. Right now, the entire population of Iran is shouting this slogan, which is the summary of a completely different life. It is success in itself."

 

MA / Gözde Çağrı Özköse