A crucial economic sector for Iran.

Oil workers in Iran went on strike in support of protests against the regime. Oil is a critical sector for Iran. This is a big deal. pic.twitter.com/8IJUM1paNK

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) October 11, 2022

 
And the women’s protests have spread among schoolgirls as well. The courage this takes can not be overstated.

The girls took over their school and are chanting "death to the dictator"❤️ #Iran pic.twitter.com/s9MX8Dbsll

— Sofia Ukraini (@SlavaUk30722777) October 4, 2022

This report from The New Yorker is a good read.

Iran’s Protests Are the First Counter-Revolution Led by Women

Women are still defying and dying in an uprising that is historically unique for being centered on women’s freedom.

The girls and women of Iran are just bitchin’ brave, flipping the bird at its Supreme Leader in a challenge to one of the most significant revolutions in modern history. Day after dangerous day, on open streets and in gated schools, in a flood of tweets and brazen videos, they have ridiculed a theocracy that deems itself the government of God. The average age of the protesters who have been arrested is just fifteen, the Revolutionary Guard’s deputy commander claimed last week. In the process, they have captured the world’s imagination; sympathy rallies have been held from London to Los Angeles, Sydney to Seoul, and Tokyo to Tunis.

Iran’s protests may well be the first time in history that women have been both the spark and engine for an attempted counter-revolution. “The role played by Iranian women right now seems very unprecedented,” Daniel Edelstein, a political scientist at Stanford and an expert on revolutions, told me….

Other girls and women have been killed or arrested during more than three weeks of the protests. Nika Shakarami, a young art student, was last heard from on September 20th, when she called a friend to say that security forces were chasing her down the street. Ten days later, her family was summoned to retrieve her body from a detention center in Tehran. Shakarami’s head appeared battered, her aunt told the BBC. The government claimed that she died after falling from a rooftop….

Five days after Mahsa Amini’s death, Hadis Najafi, a twentysomething TikTok enthusiast, recorded a video message during a protest. “I hope in a few years when I look back, I will be happy that everything has changed for the better,” she reportedly said. She was shot in the head hours later. Sarina Esmailzadeh, a sixteen-year-old video-blogger, recently posted, “I always think, Why did I have to be born in Iran?” She was reportedly beaten to death during a rally in Karaj; the government claimed that she, too, had jumped from a rooftop. The new deaths have fuelled more fury—and more funerals….

And I just keep thinking about the rising tide of women here in the United States, where we are registering to vote in record numbers. The world would be in much better shape if women had more influence in how that world was arranged. These women literally give their lives to make that a reality.