In the Grove Plaza in Boise, Idaho, the lyrics “For my sister, my brother, and unity” ring out from a speaker, as “Baraye”, also known as “For woman, life, liberty” sung by Rana Mansour plays at a vigil for Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini.
Iranian Morality Police detained Mahsa Amini, 22, on Sept. 13, 2022, under allegations of wearing her hijab incorrectly. She died in a hospital on Sept. 16, 2022. A U.N. fact-finding mission reported her death was the result of the “physical violence” from the morality police.
Amini’s death sparked widespread protests as Iranians called for equity and human rights on an unprecedented scale known as the Women, Life, Freedom movement.
Shervin Hajipour, a young Iranian song writer created “Baraye” during protests for the Woman, Freedom, Life, movement in Iran. Hajipour drew inspiration from posts on X, formally Twitter, by fellow Iranians explaining why they were joining the movement. The video was only online for a few days before it was removed and Hajipour was arrested. By then, the song had become an anthem of the Women, Life, Freedom movement as Iranians used it in various shows of protest against the oppressive regime.
“For all the images that keep on turning in our heads”
Two years later and 6,895 miles away on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, the song played in Boise as Iraqi-born artist Luma Jasim painted a giant canvas taped to the floor of the Grove Plaza in front of 25 attendees.
Jasim is originally from Baghdad, Iraq, and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2008. In 2011, she began her second bachelor’s degree in visual arts at Boise State University. Jasim already held a bachelor’s degree in visual arts in Iraq and completed her degree in two and half years in the U.S., graduating in 2013.
After seeing her performance “Between Here and There I’m Homeless” about her life in Iraq at the Boise Contemporary Theatre, her Iranian friends invited her to join the vigil.
“I love to join them, and because most of my work is political, and even the performance I did at the Boise Contemporary Theater, two weeks ago, was also about women[’s] status in the Middle East and in Iraq especially, and having religious stuff grow that oppress women and oppress people in general,” Jasim said. “So the topic itself is very close to my heart.”
Jasim’s art wasn’t always political, but after being forced to leave her home and seeing injustice in the world, her art began to reflect what she saw.
“Originally, I’m not [a] political person, but the way life went and everything that happened made me more political and more going to this side, because I see the unfairness towards humans and losing our freedoms and losing our peace, and then at the end, we end up as refugees, and then everybody pointing at us that we are refugee, we are outsiders, we are foreigners,” Jasim said. “Well, actually, I didn’t want to leave my country, but because of all this pressure, we left.”
For Jasim, events like this represent an opportunity for people to empathize with and understand others’ stories.
“Just watching and looking at what’s happening around is not going to change anything,” Jasim said. “It’s not only in Iran. It’s not only in Iraq, even here in the US, women rights are taken away. Like women had the right to decide anything they want to do with their bodies.”
“For all the shacks and shelters that were sold to make a dime”
Two years after her death, many feel as if nothing has changed, and that America and the West have done little, if anything, to help.
“I don’t think there is a rude seriousness about how to help these stories and these realities. Unfortunately, everything is about the benefits, everything about money…some invasions were like, all the world will be against it and go and fight for it, while others, everybody is watching,” Jasim said. “Why? Because that one has to do with oil and petroleum, and that’s why everybody was mad about it. But other ones, no one gives a sh*t. Because it’s just about humans and that’s the last thing they care about.”
Jasim is not alone in her belief that the international community had a lackluster response. Mojtaba Sadegh, a Boise State associate professor of civil engineering, feels that the situation in Iran fell off America’s radar.
“With all the issues around the globe, that is expected, unfortunate, but I sincerely hope that this gets back on track with the U.S. government, and it gets back on track with some actions, not just sayings right? Because the US government has said a lot of stuff, but they haven’t done,” Sadegh said. “Even with the oil embargo, that should be enforced. It’s not enforced, right? There is no will to make any change there. They’re just timid. They’re just letting it go.”
“For all the speeches that we heard about a million times”
The path to a more equitable Iran remains unclear to many fighting for Iranian citizens.
Even among the local community, members are split on how to best handle the situation.
While some believe the U.S. should get involved, the path forward is uncertain for others. Arvin Farid, a Boise State professor of civil engineering, is one of those people.
“The unfortunate thing is, when a regime becomes violent, then people become violent, and that cycle of violence never stops,” Farid said. “You cannot overthrow a violent regime with violence you can overthrow, but then you are more violent, so what good is in it?.. I don’t know what to do about that.”
According to Farid, some believe people should pressure the government into refusing to make deals with the Iranian regime. Others support giving Iran money to get the country to open up to the rest of the world, a process Farid said could take 30 years.
In the past, the U.S. imposed sanctions on governments violating human rights, an approach Farid questioned the efficacy of.
“Trump came and said, ‘No, let’s sanction them’. But then, sanctions may have worked to some extent, because the money didn’t go to the regime. Yes, people suffer, but then it didn’t go anywhere. And will it ever go anywhere? Because look at Cuba and North Korea. They’ve been under sanctions for 45 years,” Farid said. “So I don’t know what your solution is, because the role of community is to pressure politicians, but pressure politicians to do what?”
Farid stressed the importance of keeping an open dialogue in the community and with politicians to work towards a better future together.
“I don’t know what the solution is. I know we should be aware. So honestly, I’m frustrated…. because we have these discussions among Iranian Americans, and everybody’s emotional, and they don’t think straight,” Farid said. “Follow your emotions to be more motivated. Use them that way, capitalize on it, but this is a complex problem that needs a complex, delicate solution.”
For Sadegh, the Women, Life, Freedom movement and Mahsa Amini’s death represented the Iranian government crossing a bridge it can’t come back from.
“At this point, regime change is the only option. But all efforts that have been going in the past 45 years, there [have] been a lot of ups and downs. There has been a lot of decades, not years, decades, that people were trying to fix the government, as if it becomes a functional government that at least to some extent takes the voice of people into account,” Sadegh said. “But at this point, especially after Mahsa Amini’s killing it has become ever more clear that this government needs to [go].”
Regardless of what the best path forward is, they all agree one thing is clear: Things need to change.
“For the dream of just a normal life for you and me”
To understand Iran today, Iran’s past needs to be understood. While many Americans know Iran as the theocracy it is today, life in Iran looked drastically different before the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty.
The U.S. was influential in both the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution that contributed to the rise of the Islamic Republic.
Prior to 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah and took power, Iran was secular.
“Before [the] Islamic Republic, Iran was one of the destinations of a lot of people for travel. A lot of people from the US, a lot of people from Boise, you talk to them that have been to Tehran before the current regime. Ask them, they loved it,” Sadegh said. “They felt very close to the people of Iran. Because the people of Iran, they value Western values. I hope that the US in general, and then the rest of the West see allies in the people of Iran and invest in them and get rid of this regime.”
Farid believes that the media often reinforces the inaccurate perception of Iranians prevalent among Americans by focusing on the regime, and not the people.
“Throughout the past 45 years, it’s [the media] all about the regime and all the atrocities and all the chaos and Russia and terrorism that they spread and to somebody in the street or somebody who listens to the media, the media does not do a good job of just differentiating between the two groups [the regime and Iranians],” Farid said. “It has to be emphasized that even [the] people of Iran are suppressed and oppressed by the regime, and they don’t like this.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran responded to the Women, Life, Freedom movement in the same way that characterized the regime’s existence since its inception — with violence.
In 2022, Iranian authorities “arbitrarily” executed six men in connection with the Women, Life, Freedom movement according to Amnesty International. The U.N. fact-finding mission found that Tehran committed “crimes against humanity” and used “unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force” to suppress protests. The fact-finding mission estimated that 551 people were killed during the protests and found that state authorities tortured people being held in detention.
Farid said the regime used a “divide and conquer” method to divide factions in the movement.
“All these factions started pointing fingers at each other, and basically they forgot that the main target was something else, they were supposed to support the people of Iran, not just infight,” Farid said. “Everybody got frustrated. If you remember, two years ago, we had protests every week. Then everybody said, ‘Okay, there’s no point’ … So basically, people are quiet outside and inside, and the regime is taking advantage.”
According to Farid, the regime capitalized on the distraction both inside and outside Iran, citing the rising number of executions. In 2023, Iran saw a 43% rise in executions following the protests. Iran executed at least 834 people last year, marking an eight year high in executions.
“Because of the war in Ukraine, nobody talks about [the] people of Iran … So first [the] regime was unhappy because all the eyes were on Iran. The war in Ukraine started now they’ve forgotten. It’s all about Ukraine,” Farid said. “The war between Palestine and Israel started now. All the eyes are there, and everybody has forgotten about Iran and Ukraine.”
“For the future generations fighting for their time”
Despite the lack of international attention on the Islamic Regime, Iranians continue to advocate for change.
“Right now, in Iran, young women, teenage girls, are getting gassed in schools, in prisons. They’re getting tortured, gang raped and murdered, and we want to stop it. That’s why we’re here. We want to stop it,” Fariborz Parthor, a vigil attendee said. “That’s our short-term goal. Long-term, we want Islamic repulsive murderers, which I call Islamic republic in Iran, we want them destroyed and held up to the fire of justice.”
The Women, Life, Freedom movement centers around the idea that working towards equality begins with women’s rights.
“Many of the dictatorships, that’s their way of separating people so they oppress women more than men. To basically attack the fabrics of the society. And that’s unfortunately going on with the Iranian government as well,” Sadegh said.
Behind Sadegh, posters with the names of the women and men who lost their lives in pursuit of equity as part of the Women, Life, Freedom movement sit in front of a table, with an Iranian flag hanging behind it.
In front of the table, Jasim works on her canvas, depicting a woman’s features with the words “women, life, freedom” on it.
For those attending the vigil, the call for action is a global one, not just for women in Iran, and Jasim is a representation of this global call.
During the Iran-Iraq War, estimates put the death toll at 500,000, though some reports estimate the total death toll as 1 million. Jasim’s participation represented that they are all united in their stance against women’s oppression.
“Because how would you expect somebody from Iraq to come join this movement? And the reason is, this movement has a struggle with women, and it’s about the freedom of women. And she is basically standing with black women, women of Iran or Afghanistan or anywhere who are oppressed, and all the women across the world, including the United States, who are fighting for their freedom and their rights to their own body,” Farid said. “Because what’s the difference if you force somebody to wear [a] hijab, or you force them to take it off, or force them to make a decision that they don’t want about their own body?”
Attendees emphasized that the fight for women’s rights is not only a global one, but an ongoing one.
“It’s important to make sure that this stays alive … Liberty is not something that we gain overnight. It’s the pursuit of liberty and making sure that you’re stepping in that route every day,” Sadegh said. “Here we are in the safety of [the] first amendment, securing our freedom here. So the least that we can do is just to make sure that we are in concert with what’s going on in Iran, we also express that we support all the activities that go towards freedom seeking across the world. Doesn’t matter where it is across the world, whoever is trying to get free of a dictator. We are ready.”
Music continues to play through the plaza as the vigil continues. As Jasim works, she smears paint across the canvas. By the time she stands over her finished work, the words and face are no longer clearly visible.
The closing lyrics of “Baraye”, meaning “for” in Persian echo across the plaza:
“For all mankind, and our country / For all the boys and girls who never knew equality / For woman, for life, liberty / For liberty / For liberty / For liberty”.
