🇺🇸 Turmoil in Tehran

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TRENDING

Left: A stunning stat on Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates (CNN)

Left: 'Shoot To Kill': Trump Ally Roger Stone Calls For Violence In Chilling Video (Huffington Post)

Left: Ken Paxton makes a run for it: Fleeing a subpoena, the Texas AG epitomizes cowardice of GOP bullies (Salon)

Right: Nadler feuded with Schiff, Pelosi over 'unconstitutional' impeachment of Donald Trump (Fox News)

Right: White House Worried Italy’s Giorgia Meloni May Weaken Joe Biden’s European Coalition (Breitbart)

Right: Gavin Newsom warns Democrats that Fox News hosts are dominating politics: 'We are getting crushed' (The Blaze)

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QUICK CLICKS

Bracing for Flooding, Student Loan Lawsuit, New Nuclear Warning

US: Florida bracing for ‘catastrophic flooding,’ DeSantis says, as 2.5 million get evacuation orders (Daily News) + Ian, now a major Category 3 hurricane, is growing stronger in the Gulf of Mexico (NBC News)

US: First lawsuit filed to block Biden's student loan handout (Fox News)

World: Russia issues new nuclear warning as contested Ukraine referendums end (Reuters)

Business: GM delays timeline on employees returning to the office amid backlash (Detroit News)

World: Japan's former leader Abe honored at a divisive state funeral (NPR)

Business: New ‘Striketober’ looms as US walkouts increase amid surge in union activity (The Guardian)

US: Scientology does anything for Tom Cruise, even asking wife for divorce: book (Page Six)

Entertainment: Shakira to Face Trial Over Tax Fraud in Spain (Hollywood Reporter)

Health: COVID-19 Vaccines Can Make Periods Longer, Study Says (TIME)

Sports: Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett Crashed His Car Attempting To Avoid An Animal (OutKick)

US: Teachers, Nurses, and Child-Care Workers Have Had Enough (The Atlantic)

US: Artemis moon mission likely delayed until November as NASA moves rocket out of hurricane’s path (CNBC)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Turmoil in Tehran

Protests have raged in Iran for over 10 days following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died in a hospital after being taken into police custody.

Reports indicate she had been taken to a “re-education center” because she allowed some hair to be seen beneath her hijab headscarf, which violates Iran’s morality rules.

Her father claims she was beaten by police and subsequently fell into a coma, while Iranian authorities claim the woman died of a heart attack.

Reporting from the Left: Iran protest deaths reportedly soar as woman's family tells CBS News she was tortured and killed by "morality police" (CBS News)

Reporting from the Right: Dozens dead, over 1,200 arrested in Iran as regime warns of 'decisive' crackdown (Fox News)

From The Flag: Amini’s father says the heart attack claim is dubious because his daughter was healthy. Iran has warned the US to refrain from encouraging any further uprising. Elon Musk has vowed to deploy his Starlink internet satellites to help protesters communicate. Here’s the latest from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

As the People of Iran Show Courage, Others Are Cowards

• Both Mahas Amini and the people now protesting her death are incredibly brave – but the West remains largely silent.

• For years activists have been decrying the hijab and how it leads to the subjugation of women, but few have listened.

• Other Islamic countries have been noticeably silent and unwilling to criticize Iran as these protests have unfolded.

“Mahsa Amini and the bravery of Iran’s anti-hijab protesters” Joanna Williams, Spiked: “Street protests have raged since Amini’s death was announced on Friday. Brave, bold and angry women have defied police orders and removed their hijabs in public. … The risk these protesters are taking cannot be overstated. At the time of writing, six people have been killed and dozens more have been seriously injured during the protests. Riot police have, at times, openly fired into the crowds. … So where are the Western solidarity rallies? … Back in May 2020, the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis prompted people around the world to join protest rallies, to take the knee and to black out their social-media profiles. … Why the difference? … Perhaps Western protesters angry at the US police are uncomfortable criticising an Islamic state. After all, woke activists… are often thoroughly confused when it is Muslim men subjugating women.”

“Mahsa Amini's Murder Revealed the Truth: Hijab Is a Tool of Oppression” Yasmine Mohammed, Newsweek Opinion: “I am grateful that people are paying attention to this young woman who was killed because of a few strands of hair. But I am also incredibly angry, frustrated, and infuriated that our screams have been ignored for so long. I am so sorry that it had to take a young woman losing her life by being brutally beaten until she was brain dead for the world to finally notice our screams. It's not for lack of trying on our part. … We screamed every time women in Pakistan, Algeria, and Egypt were killed over hijab. But no one heard our screams. Instead, people in the West continued to regurgitate the Islamist propaganda… that wearing hijab is simply ‘an empowering choice.’ What are our choices? Wear it or suffer the consequences? The word ‘choice’ is a lie in this context.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Hijab hypocrisy: Iran, Mahsa Amini and the double standards of Islamic countries Vivek Katju, Firstpost

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Women and Other Subjugated Minorities Won’t Take It Any More

• The brutal Iranian regime routinely mistreats women and other minorities, including Kurds, but the people are rising up.

• Iran’s oppressive and draconian morality police are unlike anything people in the West are familiar with.

• A female journalist who was exiled from Iran is helping to fuel the protests from an FBI safe house in the United States.

“Iran on fire: Once again, women are on the vanguard of transformative change” Vrinda Narain and Fatemeh Sadeghi, The Conversation: “Amini’s death starkly illustrated the systematic violence of police and highlighted particularly the brutality of the regime towards women and minorities. She was Kurdish, a member of one of the most oppressed minority ethnic groups in Iran. All Iranian women who are routinely humiliated because of their gender can empathize with her. But Kurds and Kurdish women in particular understood the political message of her death at the hands of police and the state’s subsequent violent response to the protests. The huge wave of protests in Iran following Amini’s death represents a historic moment in Iran. … the demand for radical change in Iran today is strong and significant. With every wave of protest, the desire for freedom gets stronger, the voices get louder and success is within reach.”

“When Iran’s ‘morality police’ came for me” Pardis Mahdavi, Washington Post Op-ed: “The komiteh walk the streets day and night, sometimes in pairs, often in groups of four. They can be seen wearing green uniforms or in the case of women, black cloaks from head to toe, patrolling the streets for immorality: strands of hair falling from loosened veils, couples holding hands, young people playing loud music in their cars as they talk, laugh or trade texts in traffic jams. They bully young people engaging in behaviors they deem immoral — a shifting list that can range from nail polish to making out in the park. Disguised in plainclothes, they raid parties, raves, warehouses to round up dozens — or at times hundreds — of ‘immoral’ Iranians. Sometimes, those arrested are taken to holding centers; the women will be questioned about their virginity. Other times, they face public floggings.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: The Exiled Dissident Fuelling the Hijab Protests in Iran Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker

FLAG THIS

History of Compulsory Hijab, and Iran’s Pessimistic Youth

Polling results gathered in July indicated young people in Iran aren’t confident about their future, and many want to move abroad. Asked if they would move to a foreign country if given the chance, 49% of respondents aged 18-29 said yes (Statis Consulting).

That’s the same number of respondents (49%) who said the decision to wear the hijab should be a private matter, in a poll organized eight years ago by the research arm of then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s office.

For context in 1979, the Islamic Revolution unfolded in Iran and led to strict rules concerning women’s dress, including the required hijab.

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WATERCOOLER

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