This Friday (16 Sep 2022), in Iran, morality police arrested a 22 yo girl Mahsa Amini for not wearing a hijab and her trousers correctly. She later was beaten and died while in police custody, sparking a countrywide protest against strict government rules.
From a happiness perspective, women’s rights are a big issue, as women represent half of the population, being our friends, family members, wives, sisters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, coworkers, and other members of our society. Certainly, their happiness matters, as we can’t call ourselves human beings if we do anything less than nurture this important group of people.
And yet, all over the world, women are being disrespected, suppressed, and disregarded, while governments (and senior business positions) predominately or completely consist of men, who dictate how women should behave from top to bottom.
Now, this is just the latest case in ongoing repression of women’s rights, and men thinking that they know whats better for them. The previous recent case include:
- US enforcing an anti-abortion laws,
- In Afghanistan, Taliban enforcing similar female repressive rules,
- Sarah Everard being raped and killed in the centre of London by a policeman.
Now, can we state that the same holds true for men?
And while in predominately Muslim countries, like Iran, Qur’an instructs Muslim women to dress modestly, maintaining modesty and privacy from unrelated males, this should not be a pretence for violence.
As such, countries and communities should strive for more equal rights, regardless of how they feel, and if anyone shows a conflicting interest to us.
The rule should be that we should strive for happiness for the greatest number possible, which does include women, LGBTQ, people of colour, and virtually everyone else, and it is not the one with the biggest stick who wins, but rather a healthy non-violent debate should take place.
And while the road to an all-inclusive, hormones, and all around happy social life is still far, we are sending our support to the protesters who are fighting this social injustice, promoting and supporting them in anyway possible, with one of the first things is informing ourselves, acknowledging, and calling out injustices whenever they happen.
