For International Day of the Girl
Obama’s worthy struggle of women in Iran
10/11/2022, 11:14 p.m
In Iran, people have been taking to the streets for weeks. The protests were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September. In a statement, former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle admire the commitment of the young women who refuse to remain silent.
On International Day of the Girl, former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle paid tribute to the struggle of girls in Iran. Iranian women and girls have inspired the world through their ongoing protest, the Obamas said in a joint statement.
“We admire the Iranian girls who have shown such leadership and insist that the future is different from the past and that Iranian women enjoy the full rights and opportunities that are their due.” The Obamas added, “We believe that the future will ultimately belong to the young women and girls of Iran who refuse to remain silent.”
In Iran, people have been taking to the streets for weeks. The protests were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The moral police had arrested her because of her allegedly “un-Islamic outfit”. What happened to Amini after that is unclear. The woman fell into a coma and died in a hospital on September 16.
Amini’s father on Saturday dismissed the Iranian authorities’ official explanation for his daughter’s death. “I saw with my own eyes that blood had come out of Mahsa’s ears and neck,” the London-based Persian-language TV station Iran International quoted the father as saying. The Forensic Medicine Organization of Iran (IMO) said on Friday that Amini died “not from a beating,” but as a result of an earlier surgical operation when he was a child.
Critics accuse the morality police of using violence; the police deny it. Since the woman’s death, thousands have been demonstrating across the country against the government’s repressive course and the headscarf requirement.