Mahsa Amini And The Failure of Feminist Foreign Policy

In 2014 Sweden declared that it would be the first country to adopt a “Feminist Foreign Policy”, according to the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP) feminist foreign policy is “a political framework centred around the wellbeing of marginalized people and invokes processes of self-reflection regarding foreign policy’s hierarchical global systems.” The CFFP is very big on an “intersectional framework” and has its sights set on the usual villains like capitalism, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and the like. Not surprisingly, there is scant mention of how to deal with the CCP, Putin, North Korea, or any of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

This brings us to the murder of young Mahsa Amini, who was ferociously beaten by the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” for improperly wearing her hijab. Killed for a few strands of loose hair. In a normal world one would think that a woman killed by theocrats for violating a blatantly sexist dress code would be a lightning rod for those who hold feminist foreign policy ideals, but no. 

Feminist foreign policy is intersectional, which roughly translates to: the total appeasement of evil unless it comes from a white man from Montana.

The Mahsa Amini incident has brought feminist foreign policy full circle. The first action of feminist foreign policy from the Swedish government was a total feminist failure on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In early 2017 the feminist heroines of Sweden donned their hijabs and like good Dhimmis, who understand their roles as the weaker sex, humbly bowed down to the sexist theocrats who rule Iran. 

For reference, in Iran, the Islamic Republic’s laws dictate that a woman is legally worth half a man. It takes 4 women to testify against a man to meet the legal standards to count in court, a woman can’t inherit and a woman’s life is worth a man’s testicle. That’s not a joke, woman are worth half a man so the mullahs in their infinite wisdom have declared that since the murder of a man can’t be the same as the murder of a woman, and sperm produce life, therefore one woman is worth one testicle. The wonders of Sharia Law.

It should be noted that 2500 years ago Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, put forth the ancient world’s most significant decree on human rights granting religious and racial equality in the empire. It is truly sad to see a regression of human rights over a 2500-year span.

Canada’s Trudeau government is another government that loves to tout its feminist foreign policy while cozying up to some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, the Islamic Republic chief among them. When the regime murdered Canadians, Justin Trudeau has been consistent in his support for the said regime. Whether it be a professor like Kavous Seyed-Emami or the dozens of innocents shot down on PS752 Trudeau has stood tall in defence of the murders. Yes, he was forced into a few weakly worded tweets when social pressure reached a boiling point.

However, as a staunch supporter of feminist foreign policy, Justin Trudeau made sure to bow down to Iran’s chief propagandist, Javid Zariff, right after the IRGC shot down PS752 and even used Canadian taxpayer money and resource to defend the Islamic Republic in court against the families of the victims.

The murder of Mahsa Amini will be a litmus test for all the self-proclaimed progressive governments of the world to see just how much they really do care about women and “marginalized” people.

These protests inside Iran are not going away anytime soon as to the people of Iran this is not really about Mahsa Amini and mandatory hijab, but rather the last 40 years of tyrannical oppression. Mahsa Amini is the spark that has reignited the flame that was burning prior to the regime importing covid to shut down the massive street protests that started in November of 2019.

The videos coming out of Iran are inspiring as the people are tearing down any semblance of the Ayatollah, chanting against the regime, and taking on the security forces. However, the regime disarmed the people decades ago and has a long pattern of murdering thousands in the streets.

The pattern dictates that soon the regime will shut down the internet and ramp up the killings. At this moment the people of Iran will have to make a choice, is a revolution worth their lives? It is at that moment when the Iranian people choose liberty or death, it will be our moral responsibility to support them and be their voice when they are silenced.

Unfortunately, Western governments and establishment institutions will likely be useless if not counterproductive in the upcoming fight. For example, the CFFP on their official Twitter page has yet to say a word about Mahsa Amini at the time of publication of this article (September 22, 2022).

There is some good news though. This is not 2006. In the modern world, we do not need legacy institutions to carry a message. Alternative media is bigger than ever, Elon Musk can hopefully get a Starlink satellite up to uncut the regime and every person is capable of amplifying a message with their social media accounts.

For years the world has failed the Iranian people, falling victim to the false “reformist” lie put forward by the regime’s foreign lobbyist groups like NIAC or the ICC, but now even they are forced to change their tone on the regime they have defended for decades.

The people of Iran have suffered since 1979, Mahsa Amini may just be the straw that breaks the theocrats back. It is time to see what a real feminist movement is cable of.