International Women's Day 2023: Reflection on women's resistance in Cuba and Iran

  "We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly". - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale

 

In 2022 focused on the different treatment of women under capitalist and communist regimes. Explored how a communist regime in Romania was a main inspiration for Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale.

Shannon Quinn, an author at History Collection, in her post  "17 Moments In History that Inspired the Handmaid’s Tale" in History Collection cited Nicolae Ceausescu's Decree 770 policy targeting Romanian women.

One of the specific events that Margaret Atwood found during her research process was “Decree 770” in Romania. This was a law that passed in 1967 that made abortions and all forms of contraception illegal. This had nothing to do with religious beliefs. It was an action that the government believed was necessary for the future of their country. The government already taxed married couples a 6% income tax if they did not have children between the ages of 25 and 50, but they realized that this was not enough to stop people from using contraception. 

In 2020 focused on the problematic origins of International Women's Day, but today reflect on women who are resisting tyranny.

Specifically, this year will examine how women in Cuba and Iran are challenging totalitarian rule in a communist and theocratic regime respectively. 

Cuba

Over the past sixty four years the Castro dictatorship has systematically violated the human rights of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Cuba. Between 1959 and 1988 no international organizations were allowed to visit prisons in Cuba. This included the International Committee of the Red Cross. Lilo Vilaplana’s film Plantadas, screened on Sunday at the Miami Film Festival, examines this chapter of Cuban history, how it impacted Cuban women, and offers viewers the opportunity to revisit some important works to accompany this important movie.

In 1995 Ana Rodriguez with the assistance of Glenn Garvin wrote her memoir DIARY OF A SURVIVOR: Nineteen Years in a Cuban Women's Prison. Ana Rodriguez, a medical student who first conspired against the Batista dictatorship, first welcoming the arrival of Fidel Castro to power she soon became disillusioned and turned against the emerging communist dictatorship. Captured, Ana was sentenced to a 30 year prison sentence for her non-violent dissent in the anti-Castro underground. Over the 19 years she spent in prison, Ana "consistently defied the authorities' brutal and at times comically inept efforts to break her will." She is an example of a plantada, and she was not alone.

Sadly, there were many others like Ana Rodriguez, Gloria Argudín and Luisa Pérez who endured years of torture and mistreatment in Cuban prisons for their political beliefs.

The testimony of Luisa Pérez, another former plantada ( defiant) political prisoner about Cuban prisons in "Nobody listened" (1987), a documentary by Néstor Almendros and Jorge Ulla, is consistent with the testimony of Dora Delgado "Japón" on pages. 175-176 of the 2007 book Todo Lo Dieron Por Cuba (They Gave Everything For Cuba) by Mignon Medrano:

... Mother's Day falls on the 14th again. It was a month full of fights with the militia, of beatings, it was a terrible month. On the 6th they came to galley 1 with a list and called Caridad Roque, me and others. As they called, the others said, "Hey, save me a good bed, and if there are mangoes, pick one for me," because we thought we were going to the farm. But when they noticed that they were taking five from here, two from there and four from another place, and they heard the names, they said, "This smells rotten to us... that the first transfer to the farm is with these people? ... listen, girls, whatever happens, shout!" ...

Indeed, at the end of the long and dark corridor, Ramiro Valdés himself was waiting for us in front of about 600 men. I could not shout and alert because the galleys were open and they would have launched into a certain massacre. I kept walking, behind me came Pola and noticing my reaction she also hid it. That helped the others do the same. But when those who stayed behind found out that we had been taken to Guanajay with the general prison population, they began to break everything that was within their reach and clang metal objects against the iron bars of the cells that was so loud that it became famous in the history of the prison...

... I would like to add to the story of the escape from Guanabacoa that when the verdeolivos caught us and they dragged us to the galley, they had some long weapons that looked like old muskets, which we began to make fun of. We didn't know they were gas launchers. They fired them at point-blank range and with the flashes they burned her face, shattered the face of Luisa Pérez… It was a tremendous fight, blows come and go… They burned all of us with flashes.

Without giving us medical attention, they threw us into the cells like pigs and several days later they separated us in different places…"

Today there are at least 125 Cuban women jailed for exercising their fundamental human rights, and many of them are Plantadas.

 

The women political prisoners who signed with their blood a letter demanding that Miguel Díaz-Canel fulfill Pope Francis' wish that the protesters of July 11, 2021 be released, were taken this past Thursday to a disciplinary court in the women's prison of Guatao in Havana.

 

In 1987 the documentary "Nobody Listened" captured Cuba's human rights reality combining interviews with former political prisoners, including some Plantadas, archival footage of firing squads and other instances of repression. Former prisoners described show trials, extajudicial executions, and cruel and unusual punishment that rose to the level of torture. This is the perfect documentary to accompany the new film, Plantadas and provides historical context to the new movie, and is available online and for purchase on Amazon. 

 

Please follow these courageous Cuban women: Anamely Ramos González @AnamelyRamos, Berta Soler Fernández @bertasolerf, Carolina Barrero @carolinabferrer, Damas de Blanco @DamasdBlanco, Mar por Cuba @MARporCuba, Omara @OmaraRUrquiola, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen @RosLehtinen, Rosa María Payá A. @RosaMariaPaya, Sirley Avila Leon @Sirleyavilaleon and there are many more that are impossible to list all here.

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Iran

In September 2022 this blog published a "Call for solidarity with protesters in Iran. Please share hashtags: #MahsaAmini #ZhinaAmini #IranProtests," that highlighted the killing of Mahsa Amini by the Guidance Patrol, also called the morality police, massive nationwide protests that followed, how to help, provided some historic context on relations between Tehran and Cuba, and highlighted the important role of Iranian women in this nationwide uprising. A revolution driven by a celebration and defense of Women, Life, Freedom.

In July 2022, Tehran tried to kidnap, then murder Masih Alinejad.

Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who was repeatedly cited in the previous blog post, was targeted by the Iranian Intelligence Services in a plot to kidnap her for Rendition to Iran, revealed the FBI on July 13, 2021. A little over a year later on July 31, 2022 Khalid Mehdiyev, age 23, was found outside her home with an AK-47, a high-capacity magazine and more than $1,000 in cash.

Khalid Mehdiyev is from Azerbaijan, and according to Jason Brodsky at the United Against Nuclear Iran nonprofit the dictatorship in Iran has been known to contract "Azeri hitmen to target Israelis in Cyprus."   

Ayatollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa on February 14, 1989 condemning Salman Rushdie to death for blasphemy, and it was never rescinded. Salman Rushdie was attacked by Hadi Matar, age 24, on August 12, 2022 and stabbed in the stomach, chest, eye, hand and thigh. Rushdie needed to be placed on a respirator following the attack, and nearly died. 

U.S. residents are being targeted for kidnapping and murder by agents of Iran in 2022. This is happening in America. This is unacceptable.

Ignoring the injustices taking place in Iran, brought them to New York. Time to pay attention, and hold the mullahs accountable.

Seven months later and it appears that the Mullahs in Iran, in their desperation before women's and young girls resistance to their theocratic rule, may be poisoning young girls who attend school in a war against girl's education.  

The time for solidarity with Iranian women continues.

Please follow Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih on Twitter and amplify her voice, and that of other Iranian women such as:  Nazanin Nour @NazaninNour, Roya Hakakian @RoyaTheWriter, Nazanin Boniadi @NazaninBoniadi, Nazenin Ansari @NazeninA, Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay @NazaninAJ, and Mariam Memarsadeghi @memarsadeghi. 

On Saturday at 2:00pm in Washington DC Iranian activists will gather at Freedom Plaza and hold a Global Women's March for Iran.