Faraway Phoenix

October 3, 2022 - Protesting Iranian schoolgirls kick their pro-government school director out of their schoolgrounds. Students across Iran have been occupying their schools in protest after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini. [video]

1. Your parents were born to muslim parents so they’re automatically muslim. You’re automatically a muslim too. You didn’t choose your religion and you can’t opt out of it or you will be executed.

2. The compulsory hijab law makes you a criminal if you choose not to wear hijab even tho you didn’t choose to be a muslim and you don’t consider yourself a muslim but the regime has forced you into that role whether you like it or not. And when you ‘break that law’, they can do with you as they please.

3. little girls as young as 7 yrs old are forced to wear hijab at school even tho the islam itself says the age is 9. and all the schools are gender segregated so imagine how they force you to get used to hijab even when you’re just surrounded by other girls. And all day long at school they tell you horrible stories about what will happen to you in hell if someone sees even a strand of your hair.

4. the regime modifies all the textbooks, story books, cartoons and movies to represent the ideal woman with full on hijab. The iranian media is ordered to photoshop every photo of a woman that may be showing a little skin. And if they’re iranian, no hair is supposed to be seen or that will be photoshopped away. Women are mostly excluded from billboards and tv commercials.

5. imagine going to work or meeting up with a friend when suddenly the morality police kidnap you in broad daylight and force you into a van to take you to a station where they will treat you like a criminal and if you don’t agree to get humiliated and do as they say, they will put you in prison. And in case of Mahsa Amini and so many more before her, they will beat you to death. My sister was barely 18 when she got kidnapped and they didn’t let her call home and she’d been so fucking scared and we had no idea where she was. Imagine all the psychological trauma.

6. If you’re in a car and not wearing hijab they will fine you and seize your car. So when u get into a taxi the driver will ask you to keep your hijab on otherwise they’ll get fined. And if you refuse they’ll ask you to get off the car.

7. And its not just about hijab. In Ramadan, they get even more vicious. If they catch you eating or even drinking water on the street they will give you lashes as punishment and even imprison you for breaking the law. If you work in a state-owned company it’s even worse. They will close the cafeteria and take away the water dispensers. All restaurants are banned from delivering food before iftar. It’s a fucking mess. Everyone has to pretend they’re fasting or they’ll be severely punished.

8. And how could I forget about this! iranian women are banned from singing! the islamic regime prohibits women’s singing voices to be heard by men so imagine the horror of having 50% of the population banned from ever becoming a singer. If they identify a female singer in iran, they will take her to jail and force her to repent her sins in the most humiliating way so that she will never dare sing again.

9. And every time the regime gets wind of a private gathering of men and women trying to have fun and live their fucking private lives, the police crash the party and take everyone to jail bc the Islamic regime bans iranian men and women from having fun.

So if you see Islam has become for many iranians a symbol of oppression and torture and discrimination, that’s why. The regime uses islam as a weapon to silence and punish anyone who opposes them. You can love islam all you want from the safety of your home in a free country and talk about how kind and benevolent the religion is, but in iran, it’s a whole different story.

Our economy is fucked. All govt officials are corrupt as fuck. Most websites are banned in iran. Even tumblr is banned. The world has cut the iranian ppl from many services. We don’t have intl credit cards like visa card. Amazon doesn’t do delivery to iran. We cant get netflix, spotify or even a gamepass subscription. we don’t get any Apple services here. iran isn’t listed as a country you could choose when signing up for a lot of services. and when we decide to leave iran and escape this hellhole, every country out there will make it sooo much harder for us to get a visa just bc we had the misfortune to be born in iran at the wrong time.

This is the story of iran for the past 44 years. Held hostage by a corrupt regime that uses religion to suppress and torture the people and being abandoned by the rest of the world bc our lives don’t matter.

You can't be gay in here. We're erased from media and culture and the world, if they can. In this very month, two LGBTQ+ activists – Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, known as Sareh, and Elham Chubdar – were sentenced to death. And mostly we won't even get to know about things like this. I knew an activist on social media who got whipped because she was "advertising" homosexuality and after a while she just stopped posting whatsoever. I was almost expelled from school, once, because they suspected I was gay. I convinced them I wasn't. I am. Also, the punishment for two men sleeping together is death. The punishment for two women sleeping together is 100 lashes.

OP mentioned gender segregated schools. A whole lot of other public places are divided by gender, too: buses, subways, mosques, study rooms in libraries, public bathrooms, hair salons, gyms, you name it. As you can imagine, it is very fun being trans or nonbinary here.

It's very random but women aren't allowed in stadiums to watch soccer matches. And women's sports aren't broadcast in TV.

Speaking of TV! Everything is censored. Any kind of physical touch between a man and a woman (it doesn't really matter if they're lovers or a mother and her son) or even a man and a women standing particularly close together is cut out, women's skin is somehow digitally colored so it appears like they're wearing more modest clothes than they are, so much of the plot is simply just changed in the translation. Iranian women can't appear on estate television if they're not covered from head to toe, save for their face and hands. They even have to wear gloves if they have nail polish or something.

Marriage laws are absolutely ridiculous. Women – and not men – need their fathers' – and not thier mothers' – written approval so they're allowed to get married. Child marriage is legal and encouraged. The husband is in charge of the family; meaning he's the only one legally allowed to end the marriage, he's the one who has a say in where they will live, and he is legally able to ban his wife from getting an education (even if she's still in school), going to work, and getting out of the country. And he can beat his wife – the police won't interfere in "family stuff". Sexually assaulting your wife just isn't a thing in law. If she's your wife, she can't say no.

They've recently restricted access to birth control. Abortions have always been illegal. Sex education doesn't exist at all.

The protesters in these past few days have faced so much violence from the police. The police beats us, shoots us, uses gas tears, attacks the houses of those who have let the protesters in, and break the protesters' phones, or force them to delete everything they've recorded.

And the internet! The internet is, to put it quite literally, shit. International internet doesn't work or works selectively and slowly. Many websites and apps were inaccessible without a VPN before – including Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, fucking Goodreads, for some reason, and many more – and now it's even more restricted. WhatsApp and Instagram – both very widely-used in Iran – can't be reached anymore. Even most VPNs don't work now. This is the second time I'm typing all this, because the first time I hit send without caution and my VPN didn't work and it all went to shit.

im back after 2 years

A series of pictures depicting issues for those who rely on wheelchairs.

A person with glasses sitting on a wheelchair stares at a door entrance located on a set of stairs.

Did you know... Some of us couldn’t even enter our own homes?

A crowd gathers in front of a bus, with a person on a wheelchair on the back, trying to get other people’s attention.

Please be mindful... Of those who can’t “push” their way around!

A woman with a hijab and glasses sits at a receptionist desk. A person on a wheelchair wearing a kippah is unable to reach the top to get her attention.

Simple things like reception desk height actually matters a lot!

A person on a wheelchair wearing a baseball hat backwards is unable to close the door to the restrooms. Despite this, the sign outside is marked as wheelchair accessible.

It is as if... Some doors aren’t meant to be closed!

A person on a wheelchair is frightened as their wheelchair goes down too fast down a ramp.

Did you know... That wheelchair ramps are steeper than recommended?

A man wearing a kippah is about to enter a temple, but covers his wheelchair wheels with a cover to keep the inside of the temple as clean as possible.

Wheelchairs go everywhere... But we can provide wheel covers for special places.

A picture of a parking lot Two cars are parked, one with most space to allow a disabled person to get on and off. A woman holding crutches is angered at a motorcycle parked in front of her car, which isn’t supposed to be there. A person on a wheelchair nearby notices her anger.

There’s a reason why... Certain space is allocated at disabled parking lots. And no, it’s not for your bike!

Two people stand in front of an automatic door. One is a child attempting to wave their hands to get it to open, and the other is a person on a wheelchair.

Notice that sometimes... Automatic door sensors are a bit short?

A bus is waiting at a stop. A person on a wheelchair is unable to get to the stop due to a steep ledge in front of them.

Are you aware that... Despite the upgraded buses, the bus stops need upgrading too?

A person on a wheelchair is using an ATM machine, which is placed at a lower position so they’re able to reach and use the machine comfortably.

In case you’re wondering... Why the new ATM machine designs are lower and slightly uncomfortable to use while standing up...

Sometimes I’m happy and I wanna live forever

Sailors aboard a ship used to hum to warn the captain they were THIS close to a mutiny and didn’t like conditions AT ALL. Because humming was something others could keep doing when you stopped. Anyone comes close you stop, but the hum of the rest keeps on and they can’t prove who, exactly, is doing it.

And if people want more information, this particular song is called “The Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man)”, written by the Canadian folk group Great Big Sea.

Three giggling girls from Fort Berthold Rez, c. 1907

Abandoned roller coaster in Nara, Japan

Turn ON the sound

She didn’t run for election; she was appointed, without her knowledge, while she was living and working in a completely different part of the country. She just received a call one day telling her to come back to her childhood home, because she was in charge now.

So she did; and when she arrived, she discovered widespread sexual abuse of children. She browbeat 50 uncooperative local leaders into accepting her decision to annul all the marriages. She then fired four of them when they continued to allow children to be married off in their areas. She still faces widespread opposition from parents who consider it their right to sexually abuse their daughters if they want to; but Kachindamoto very evidently does not give a fuck, and is continuing to use political and legal means to protect children in the region.