After seeing the brave demonstrations of women all over Iran lighting cigarettes with burning pictures of the dictatorial ayatollah, I’m inspired to take up smoking. It’s an incredibly brave display of resistance. You know, the kind of resistance progressives told us was ideal — until they ignored it occurring on the streets of Iran.
Right now, the Left is silent as actual violence is occurring in the streets of Tehran and dozens of other cities and towns throughout Iran. The people have had enough of the regime, and they, some estimates say in the millions, are marching in the streets risking life and limb to make their voices seen and heard.
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The seeing and hearing part is hard, though, considering that the internet and cell service have been shut down by the government. Estimates suggest that up to 12,000 people have been killed in the process of millions of Iranians advocating for an end to the decadeslong mistreatment of their nation. Thousands are likely beaten, arrested, or worse. The images of the protests and their fallout, including makeshift morgues with mothers looking for the bodies of their dead children, are awe-inducing.
After the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, we witnessed tens of thousands of people from London to Los Angeles, from Paris to Princeton advocating for an immediate ceasefire and the liberation of the Gaza region from the grasp of Israel’s “occupation.”
NPR and other mainstream outlets updated us daily on the lives lost at the hands of Israeli forces during the war, often directly quoting Hamas mouthpiece, the Gaza Ministry of Health, with its skewed numbers. In the United States alone, there were over 3,000 protests on college campuses, where American and Israeli flags were burned as protesters shouted about an end to genocide.
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Now, as a nation hovers between maintaining a decadeslong dictatorship or returning to a free, democratic society, we hear nothing about the human rights atrocities committed by the Republic of Iran. Nothing about the tens of thousands of women who want equality and basic rights. No pins on celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Mark Ruffalo, or Wanda Sykes. If leftists cared about the untimely and unjust murders of those in the Middle East, why are they silent now?
In the streets of America over the weekend, we saw people marching to commemorate the death of Renee Good, a leftist activist who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis last week. They use language like “Gestapo” and “fascist” and speak of being terrorized by our government. Yet, as they tell ICE to go home, tell the president to f*** off, and obstruct law enforcement, they suffer no arrest, abuse, or death. Because we are America.
All the people of Iran want is a chance to protest their government without fear of death. And the feminists, celebrities, and leftist politicians are silent.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we were told that women were being forced to go back in time, and we would be living in a real-life Handmaid’s Tale. In Iran, women are treated as second-class citizens under Sharia law, often being forced to be accompanied everywhere by a male chaperone from their family. If they are assaulted, they must have a male witness because their testimony does not count as a whole one. And there are morality police who often harass and brutalize women for not dressing how the ayatollah says they should. This sounds dystopian, but it is real for the millions of Iranian women the Left is ignoring.
The regime funds terror efforts that have led to the deaths of Americans and other nations’ innocents, denies its citizens basic civil rights and liberties, discriminates against Persians and other ethnic groups, and limits speech and media rights and access to its people. But America is the worst, according to most left-leaning talking heads. But are we really surprised by the blatant and idiotic hypocrisy of the radical Left and celebrities in the United States?
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We can only hope that one day soon Iranian women and girls will be able to walk around without a head covering, with a dog, or with a man who isn’t their chaperone without condemnation or fear of death.
Maybe when you see the bravery of these women lighting cigarettes with a picture of the man at the head of the regime that has inhibited the rights of their grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, you might want to start smoking too. Or do something even better, something tangible to help those freedom fighters overseas. Just do something more than the mediocre celebrities who pretend to care.
Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator and speaker who resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She is an advocate for women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.