By Larry Elder
Toronto Sun
The New York Times reported: “The police did not offer an explanation for why Ms. Amini was detained, other than that it involved the hijab rule. Her mother said in an interview with Iranian news media that her daughter was observing the rules and wearing a long, loose robe. She said Ms. Amini was arrested as she exited the subway with her brother and that his pleas that they were visitors to the city were ignored.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted: “Solidarity with the courageous women and allies in Iran protesting for their freedom. Mahsa Amini was senselessly murdered by the same patriarchal and autocratic forces repressing women the world over. The right to choose belongs to us all, from hijabs to reproductive care.”
Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who once said about President Donald Trump, “We’re going to impeach this motherf—,” and after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, tweeted, “Reproductive rights are human rights that remain under threat across the country,” tweeted mildly: “I stand in solidarity with the Iran protests as they fight for a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and against police brutality in the wake of the horrifying murder of Mahsa Amini.”
As for the rest of The Squad, silence.
No call by American feminists and progressives for the collapse of the totalitarian government of Iran. No wholesale condemnation of this police state’s mandate that women wear the hijab and face imprisonment for failing to do so, or for failing to wear it “correctly.” No plea that the Biden administration, at the very least, publicly support the Iranian protesters demonstrating the same kind of courage as have the Ukrainians following the Russian invasion.
Talk about men telling women what to do with their bodies. All the elements to make this an Iranian George Floyd moment are present. But the relative silence by The Squad has been deafening.
