https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=nUoG7JhlLH8
There’s the Sharia law issue, there’s the religious issue, then there’s a psychological issue that I want to delve into momentarily to see if we can sort these things out a little bit. It’s still a mystery to me in some regard because it appears to me, and this is maybe just my Western liberal bias, that the optimal relationship between a man and a woman is one of, well, first of all, it’s voluntary, and second of all, there’s an element of playfulness about it if it’s running optimally, right? So there’s love and playfulness and care and all that associated with it, but the most relevant part of all of that is the fact that it’s a voluntary association, and that’s part of what makes it both tolerable for both parties and maybe enjoyable for both parties, but it’s also something that speaks to the heart of the proper social contract in relationship to long-term, well, to any long-term arrangement between men and women. So then I’m trying to think about what it has to be like to be a man who believes that women have to be controlled in this manner, and it has to be, and this is psychologically speaking, it has to be something like the belief that unless you police women entirely in all of their behaviors, especially anything that might be attractive on the sexual front, that they’ll want nothing to do with you and they’re completely untrustworthy. It has to be something like that because if you leave women to their own devices, well, then they’re not gonna have anything to do with you and they’re going to flaunt their wares, so to speak, to other men and everything will fall apart. And I can’t really imagine a more cowardly attitude towards women than that. The attitude is unless you tell them what to do all the time, they’re gonna have nothing to do with you and run off. Yeah, it’s utterly pathetic, and I don’t think that’s exactly religious. It seems to me to be, in some real sense, it’s even deeper than religious. It’s this appallingly second-rate psychology of some notion of the relationship between men and women. Unless it’s based on strict control and power, there’s no possibility of an optimal relationship because women are untrustworthy and they’re sexually provocative and they’ll just run off on you if you don’t police every bloody thing they do. And that’s so pathetic. And if that’s the basis of your entire polity, which is the point you’re making with regards to the hijab, you can’t see that a political society like that could be anything but ultimately repressive. Of course, look, but at the end of the day, in my country, Iran, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East, we see that if the religion leave men alone, leave women alone, we know how to handle our life. We know how to deal with any kind of discrimination if we see through culture or through men among our family controlling us. But when the law is actually promoting violence and calling men to be the owner of women, then it’s getting worse and difficult. I remember that for years and years, Iranian regime actually like brainwash the whole society, especially through educational system, educating young boys that you are the owner of your sister. So when we grow up in such society, for instance, we’re being told that men, according to Sharia law, can marry four wives. They can have as much as women that they want. And oh my God, women cannot, I mean, as a woman, if you show your hair, it’s a crime, but men are allowed to actually do whatever they want to do. And in the name of honor, men, father, can kill his daughter. I mean, these are facts that I’m telling you. Like a girl in Iran who removed her job, she’s not allowed to do anything. A girl in Iran who removed her job, Sabah Kordafshari, received 24 years prison sentence, just because of removing her hijab in Iran. But a father who actually beheaded his daughter received only eight years prison sentence. So here, clearly we’re talking about Sharia laws actually allowing men to control women, to own women. So as a feminist, I believe that in my country, men are very progressive. I see that how men now are walking in the street toward morality police, towards security forces, with open arms and saying that we are ready to die, but we are not going to leave our sisters who are fighting for their dignity. So the society of men are more progressive than the law, the establishment. And that’s very, very frustrating that you see that through educational system, we’re being told that, hey, you can kill your sister. But now the same men are shouting in the street, like, Mi Miram, Mi Jangam, Zellatne Mi Pazi Ram, saying that we rather die, but not live with humiliation because men think that this is an insult to them when the whole world like actually seeing us, like, this is your culture. Iranian men cannot control themselves. They can get excited if they see women’s unveiled, women’s hair, women’s body. This is an insult to men. And to be honest, I’m very proud of Iranian men and women now shoulder to shoulder saying that we want to get rid of this religious dictatorship because it’s not just an insult to women, this is an insult to men as well. And that scares the Iranian regime. So you started to really work as a political activist when you weren’t a very old teenager, eh? You started writing pamphlets and meeting politically. How old were you when you started doing that? Like, you left your village, if I remember the story correctly, you left your small village and went off to school. How old were you when you started to become politically active? I mean, when you say that you left your village, it just breaks my heart because I got kicked out from everywhere. I never had a choice. I got kicked out from everywhere just because of wanting to have dignity and freedom. First, I got kicked out from high school just because of, you know, spreading pamphlets. Then I got kicked out from my village because it was a scandal. As a woman, I was the first one who got divorced. I was the first one who got kicked out from Iranian parliament. I was the first one who got pregnant before officially, like, being married. And that was huge scandal, you know? And in my village, I don’t have any space to stay because it was not easy for my parents. I was really a scandal for all my family. And then I became a columnist. Oh my God, no, I became a parliamentary journalist. I got kicked out from Iranian parliament just because of exposing the corruption, you know? You receive award if you do that in America, if you publish the pay slips, the salary that the member of the parliament received, you will being, you know, appreciated. You receive award. I got kicked out from Iranian parliament. At the end, I got kicked out from my homeland, Iran, because, you know, I had two option, to stay in my country and impose self-censorship on myself and just stay quiet or leave Iran and be loud. You know, Jordan, I remembered I was a naughty girl and troublemaker in my village. My mom used to say that when your uncle, aunties, everyone were around, you were making noise, your father was just kicking out from the room, but you were able to find a window and sneak into the same room. So my government kicked me out from everywhere, but I was able to find my window to sneak to my homeland. And now my window is my social media, you know? They kicked me out from Iran, but they couldn’t take Iran away from me. Through my social media, I’m there. I have like more than 10 million followers, more than the Ayatollahs altogether, and I’m not an actress, I’m not a model. I’m just giving voice to voiceless people, and I’m being in touch with them every day. So clearly, yes, I didn’t leave Iran. They kicked me out, but I am there every day. As a teenager in a very small village, poor family, I had black and white TV. I was the one watching mullahs, telling me what to do, how to think, what kind of lifestyle to follow. But now all those mullahs, through their own TV, they’re watching me, and they know me by my name.