The Mullahs Fear Women Most

Yet the clerical regime has committed one fatal miscalculation. Its greatest victims have become its greatest adversaries. Today, Iranian women lead the struggle for democratic change. Their courage has shaken one of the world's most brutal dictatorships, exposing the moral bankruptcy of a regime whose survival depends upon fear, violence and systematic discrimination. From the very beginning, the mullahs understood that controlling women meant controlling society. The compulsory hijab became far more than a dress code. It evolved into a political weapon, a daily reminder that every woman's body, voice and future belonged to the state rather than herself.

The regime's legal system reinforces this institutional misogyny at every turn. Women remain second-class citizens before the law. Family legislation favors men. Inheritance laws discriminate against daughters and wives. Judicial procedures frequently assign greater weight to male testimony. Countless opportunities remain restricted simply because of gender. Every aspect of life reflects an ideology built upon female submission and male authority.

This discrimination extends well beyond the courtroom. Young women have endured arrest, imprisonment and flogging for singing, dancing or celebrating the completion of examinations. Joy itself has become a crime whenever young women refuse to conform to the regime's suffocating vision of society. Social media videos showing students singing together after exams have triggered harsh punishment, revealing the extraordinary insecurity of rulers who fear even the laughter of young women.

Perhaps even more horrifying has been the acid attacks carried out against women whose clothing failed to satisfy religious extremists. Young women suffered catastrophic injuries after corrosive chemicals were thrown into their faces because they allegedly wore their headscarves "incorrectly." Many lost their eyesight. Many endured lifelong disfigurements. The perpetrators have enjoyed virtual impunity.

Such barbarity could never flourish without an atmosphere created by decades of official incitement against women. Whenever authorities portray independent women as enemies of religion, violent extremists inevitably feel empowered to enforce ideological conformity through terror.

The death of Mahsa Amini in police custody awakened the conscience of the democratic world. Her only alleged offence involved the manner in which she wore her hijab. Her death ignited nationwide protests led overwhelmingly by young women chanting the unforgettable slogan: "Woman, Life, Freedom." The regime responded in the only language it understands, live ammunition, mass arrests, torture and executions.

For countless women, the nightmare continued behind prison walls. Iran's prisons represent the final stage of institutional misogyny. Facilities such as Evin, Qarchak, Ghezel Hesar and Vakilabad have become symbols of calculated cruelty. Political prisoners endure prolonged solitary confinement, psychological torture, physical abuse, denial of medical treatment and relentless intimidation. Healthcare has become another instrument of repression. Women suffering serious illnesses have faced delayed surgery, withheld medication and cancelled hospital transfers. Pain itself becomes part of the punishment.

Human rights organizations have also documented coercive prison labor imposed upon women compelled to work for negligible wages under conditions resembling modern slavery. International legal experts have warned that such practices may constitute grave violations of international law. Authorities increasingly isolate prisoners from their families, restricting telephone calls and visits in an obvious attempt to destroy morale. Even these measures have failed. Many women continue their resistance from prison cells, demonstrating extraordinary resilience despite unimaginable hardship.

Political prisoners associated with the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) face especially savage persecution. Support for the movement has increasingly attracted the harshest judicial penalties, including death sentences. The reported death sentence imposed for a second time upon 68-year-old engineer Zahra Tabari, simply because of her continued support for the PMOI, demonstrates the frightening direction of Iran's judiciary. Another one, Arghavan Fallahi, 25, was sentenced to death in July.

Every act of repression reveals the regime's deepest fear. It fears organized resistance. It fears educated women. It fears mothers who refuse silence after losing children to state violence. Above all, it fears women who refuse submission. That explains why women occupy so many leadership positions within the organized Iranian Resistance. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), led by its President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, offers a vision diametrically opposed to the misogyny of the ruling theocracy. Her Ten-Point Plan calls for free elections, separation of religion and state, gender equality, an independent judiciary, abolition of the death penalty and full respect for fundamental human rights. These principles stand in stark contrast to the hatred and discrimination that have dominated Iran for almost five decades.

Far too many Western governments continue to pursue policies of accommodation and engagement with Tehran, hoping that concessions will somehow moderate a regime whose ideology rests upon repression. Experience tells a very different story. Every concession has emboldened the clerical rulers. Every failure to hold them accountable has encouraged fresh abuses against their own people.

The democratic world should stand openly alongside Iran's women rather than alongside those who imprison, torture and execute them. History offers many examples of dictatorships brought down by those whom they believed they had crushed. The Shah underestimated the Iranian people. The Soviet Union underestimated the courage of dissidents. South Africa's apartheid rulers underestimated the power of justice.

Iran's mullahs have made the same mistake. For forty-seven years they have sought to silence women through discrimination, humiliation, imprisonment, flogging, torture and murder. Instead, they have created the most determined, disciplined and courageous opposition their regime has ever faced. Iran's women have become the beating heart of the movement for freedom. Their struggle reaches far beyond compulsory veiling or equal rights. It concerns the future of an entire nation and the triumph of democracy over religious fascism. The mullahs built their regime upon the subjugation of women. Its downfall may well arrive at the hands of the very women they believed they could silence forever.

Struan Stevenson was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.

image: A woman walks past a mural depicting a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strike on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)