What most of us men have not even begun to understand is the humiliation a woman feels each time she hears the words, “Pull your headscarf forward.” A humiliation that turns into frustration, a sense of defencelessness, aversion and anger—none of which disappears. It accumulates in the heart and soul of this society and becomes a dark and heavy weight in our collective consciousness.

For Iranian women, verbal intrusion into their personal sphere is the smallest of the things whose possibility they must confront at the beginning of every day. They often endure far more each day, yet courageously and patiently continue their path and their struggle to realise their human rights.

Each time I read one of the countless narratives women have written about these intrusions and abuses, I become more convinced of the rightness, importance and priority of the activism of those who stand in the front line of this struggle. Until life and freedom prevail, and respect is restored to half of Iranian society, every other issue is secondary.

In a struggle in which one side is the repression of society, standing in the trench of narration is the first step of civil resistance. If you are subjected to intrusion or violence, tell the story. Do not conceal it. A wound hidden from the first level of social observation and judgement will become a cancer in our individual and social psyche. Speaking of injustice is the first step toward revealing its depth and extent and awakening society to struggle against it.

And a word about war. If anyone imagines that war can bring the people of Iran anything other than the repression of civil society, they understand nothing of what war does to the fabric of a society and to the blurring of the lines of truth—or they do not care about it.

Our society’s first objective is civil action to strip repression from the exhausted body of this society. Yet even for this action we need independent activists who maintain clear boundaries from foreign powers: activists who, while engaging in civil resistance against a mode of thought whose crushing weight has bent our culture, thought, solidarity and social vitality almost to breaking point, also maintain clear boundaries in defence of Iran’s independence and territorial integrity. Understanding those boundaries becomes still more important when, in a highly charged atmosphere, the boundaries of values and truth become more obscure than ever. In a world whose eyes are clouded by blood, more than ever we need open eyes and clear vision.

Aydin Areta