Mahsa Armini was murdered by Iranian police after being arrested for not wearing a hijab. That’s a truly shocking sentence, but how much does it truly shock us?
As with the death of George Floyd, her death has lit a fuse in the country where it happened. Brave young people, particularly women and girls, are confronting a vicious, puritanical regime. But beyond Iran, the death of Mahsa Amini has met with the proverbial tumbleweed. If pushed, there might be some expression of sympathy from westerners, who not so long ago were marching, chanting and taking the knee; but there is virtually no meaningful reaction to her murder.
Why is it that so many people felt driven to do something about the death of George Floyd, yet no one feels very much at all about the death of Mahsa Amini, Nika Shakarami, Hadis Najafi, or Sarina Esmailzadeh?
The officer who killed George Floyd was sacked, arrested, found guilty of murder, and given a lengthy prison sentence. Everyone, including the President, condemned him. In Iran, the morality police claim Mahsa Amini died of a rare condition, and, of course, the Supreme Leader endorses this obvious fiction. The uncle of Nika Shakarami, abducted and killed by security forces in the ensuing protests, was seen on TV making a forced confession that she had died in an accident, falling from a building.
It’s not an either or situation, but if it were: which protestors need our solidarity the most?
Thinking about why we have reacted so profoundly to one police murder, and not at all to the other, is not going to be easy or comfortable.
There will be some carefully crafted defences, something to do with geopolitics and imperialism. But maybe we should start with the fact that no one felt like doing anything about Mohsa Amini’s murder, even before they ever got to thinking about why they felt like that. So why did folk feel so differently?
The Floyd Murder was seen on stomach churning video by millions of people, whereas the Amini murder was hidden. That has to make a difference. But if that, alone, explains the discrepancy in reactions, then what does it say about human beings that we need to actually see a police murder to want to do something about it? We’re only human, and some things get through to us in a way that others don’t. But even so, having seen one police murder, should this not enable us to imagine the reality of all other ones?
The video had a huge impact, but it can’t be the total explanation for why we hit the roof over one murder, and merely note the other. If, God forbid, we see mobile footage of the murder of another Iranian woman, do we really think that the UK would see widespread demonstrations?
It should be recognised that the murder of George Floyd encapsulated an injustice with a long history, and that partially explains the depth of feeling it aroused, even here in the UK. But there is also a long, dark history behind the murder of Mahsa Amini. The Iranian people have been horribly oppressed since 1979, and they have been killed for defying orders and protesting ever since. There have been uprisings before, for which they have paid a heavy price, and with precious little support from us.
It can be argued that it is more worthwhile protesting in support of oppressed Americans because the US is an ally and a democracy. It’s a poor argument and also a very odd one. How far would anyone dare to extend it? Was there no point protesting outside Soviet embassies on behalf of prisoners of conscience during the cold war? And what about protests against Nazi Germany during the thirties?
Of course, someone will mention that Britain colonised Iran (or Persia as was), and did not behave very well. And nor did America. It’s true that the West, like every country in the world, has a blemished historical record. But even if we grant that the UK and its allies behaved badly towards Iran in the past, is this a reason why UK citizens should not now show solidarity with Mahsa Amini?
The unpalatable truth is that when foreign security services murder their citizens, we decide whether to protest or not according to our geopolitical worldview. Iran is an enemy of the West, ergo, you cannot feel the same when their police kill Iranians, as you do when US police kill black Americans.
Politics shouldn't come into it. Especially for people of faith. And shouldn't religious liberals, like us, be shouting from the rooftops about any theocratic state using police to enforce a female dress code? That would mean speaking out against strategic allies like Saudi Arabia and Western opponents like Iran. Would that be so hard to do?
I know something about this, because I was, for many years, guilty of everything that I’m complaining about here. I shared that worldview which rules out supporting anyone who is oppressed by a strategic enemy of the West.
What changed? Jesus altered the way I respond to these events. Not in terms of a spiritual encounter, (though I have experienced this too). I mean that it happened through reading and listening to Jesus’s teaching about the Kingdom of God.
It was probably not more than a thought experiment, but one day I imagined actually entering the kingdom of God, and coming face to face with people who lived under severe oppression in places that I didn't care about, like China, Iran, North Korea and so on.
That’s when It occurred to me that, whatever the Kingdom was or wasn’t, it was a place where we look into the eyes of people who had starved while we were well fed, and who lived in chains while we basked in freedom. It hit me then, and it continues to hit me, that I could not possibly say to them that I only spoke out for victims when it fitted in with my politics, (which started to change soon after).
And then one day it was more than a thought experiment. Through a local church, I started to meet, and look in the eye, people from Iran, Syria, China, and other places of terrible oppression. As might any of us, for there are hundreds and thousands of people in the UK who have escaped from barbaric regimes.
As a hoped for reality, or as a thought experiment, the Kingdom of God is a great test for all our excuses for inaction. Ask of every excuse you make: is it good enough to be articulated while looking into the eyes of those we passed over? It's a good test. Like the security forces in all totalitarian states, it’s brutal but effective.
Comments
Post a Comment